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SCIENCE
GOSSIP.

W

H ARDWICKE'S

Science-Gossip

1891.

HARDWICKE'S

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AN ILLUSTRATED MEDIUM OF INTERCHANGE AND GOSSIP

FOR STUDENTS AND

LOVERS OF NATURE.

EDITED BY

Dr. J. E. TAYLOR, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S.I.,

HON. MEMBER OF THE MANCHESTER LITERARY CLUB, OF THE NORWICH GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, OF THE

MARYPORT SCIENTIFIC SOCIETV, OF THE ROTHERHAM LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY,

OF THE NORWICH SCIENCE-GOSSIP CLUB, OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF

AUSTRALASIA, OF THE VICTORIAN FIELD NATURALISTS* CLUB,

ETC. ETC.

VOLUME XXYII.

ILontion:
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY.

1 89 1.

[All rights reserved,^

LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

1^67

PREFACE.

ANOTHER swing of the Pendulum of Life ! Only three-score
years and ten — not that, according to the statistics of the
Registrar-General, if we take the average life of the humanity
introduced upon our planet. One feels inclined to modify the well-
known lines of the Latin Poet, popularly set forth by Longfellow,
about Art being long, and Life being fleeting. Instead of Art, read
Science. Art was evolved to please people — Science to instruct them.
Art has played to the most foolish, most extravagant, most lascivious
peoples of the world. Art is glorious : it is the Revelation of genius.
But Science is Democratic — it is the possession of all. Men like
Robert Dick of Thurso, and Thomas Edwards, are the apostles of
this new democratic possession of a scientific intellectual power
which is neither aristocratic nor oligarchic, but which belongs to the
" Commonweal."

This is the present Editor's "coming of age." For twenty-one
years he has enjoyed the delightful responsibility of addressing and
interesting thousands (perhaps scores of thousands) of readers of
Science-Gossip every month. The responsibility is great — greater
than few are aware of. The correspondence entailed is enormous ;
so the Editor has to appeal to the Christian patience of his readers.
He is always open to receive any suggestions from readers that
will influence the commercial success of his journal — a success the
Editor would derive no advantage from, but which he would be
delighted to see the Publishers thereof should, if only as an expression
of their generous and trusting confidence in himself.

PREFACE.

The Editor would point out that this annual volume is distinguished
even above its predecessors by original papers. Those on the British
Diptera and Rhizopods alone will hereafter make the Volume for
1 89 1 sought after. In addition, he desires to draw attention to the
articles on the new aspects of Darwinism, &c,, to show how much
Science-Gossip endeavours to keep pace with the Philosophy as
well as with the facts of Modern Natural Science.

The Editor is fortunate in being surrounded by a zealous clientele
of earnest contributors, to each of whom he owes much. The low
price of the Old Monthly does not bring a fortune, but it helps
Science-Gossip to brighten the home of many a working-man
naturalist ; and there is no better tribute to the eagerness to receive
its monthly issue, than the grumbling letters sent when the magazine
appears a day or two later than usual.

For twenty-seven years SCIENCE-GOSSIP has held the privilege
of being the chief and most largely-circulated popular scientific
magazine in Great Britain — which means in all the world ! There
is no better testimony to the growing love of and interest in Nature,
than that such a magazine should continue to be so much required.

No effort in the Future will be spared to keep up the well-earned
reputation of the Past. Notwithstanding the fact that so many
paths have been well trodden, there still remain fresh fields and
pastures new. Natural Science, like Astronomy, may be explored,
but cannot be exhausted.

With warmest Christmas greetings, and best Seasonal wishes, the
Editor is thankful once more to greet old friends with an invisible
hand-shake, and wish them, one and all,

A Happy New Year.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Alhints, 80
Anth7-ax, 105
Arcella vulgaris, 196
ArcJueocidaris urii, 61
Arrenurus elliptkus, 148
Arrenurus integrator, 149
AT^eituriiS perforatus, 148
Arrenurus truncacellus, 149
A situs, 104

Barnacle Goose, 253
Beania fuurahilis, 249
Bernicle Tree, 252
Biomyjca vagans, 200, 201, 202
Blow-Pipe, Foot-Working, 5
Bombylius, 105

Carnac, Standing Stones of, 197

Ceniropyxis aculeata, 176

Chrysogaster, 157

Ckrysoto.xMn, 158

Clausilia rugosa, 257

Clinocera, 157

Clisiophyllum, 62

Coccus cacti, 32

Conops, 158

Conularia quadrisulcata, 63

Culex, 172

Cyphoderia ampulla, 245

Dasydytes bisetosum, i6i
Development of Tadpole, 150
Diagrammatic Sections through Windsor,

109
Difflugia acuminata, 132
Difflugia glohulosa, 132
Difflugia pyriforvtis, 131, 132
Dioctria, 104

Diptera, 35, 53, 102, 126, 156, 171, 275
Distyla depressa, 204
Distyla musicola, 205
Dixa, 172

Dog's Mercury, Notes on, 180, 181
Dolickopus, 157

Egyptian Grape-Prbss, 225
Elm-Mite, 147
Empis, 157

Encrinite, 61
Entrochi, 61
Eriodalis, 158
Euglypha alveolata, 268
Euglypha ciliata, 268
Eiiomphalus pentangulatus, 76

Fenestella mernbranacea, 62
Foot-Working Blow-Pipes, 5

Guiana Root-Press, 224

Helix arbustorum, 124
Helix aspersa, 124
Helix hispida, 124
Helix lapicidia, 124
Helix virgata, 124
Hilara, 157
Hydrophorus, 157

Jay The, 100

Leptis, 105
Limnobia, 172
Lobosa, 84
Lonchoptera, 157

Map of Dumfries District, 76

Map showing Carboniferous Limestone, 60

Medal, Two Sides of the, 27, 28

Medeter7is, 157

Monostyla arcicata, 205

Monostyla cornnta, 205

Moss, New British, 52

Nebela collaris, 1^2,^
Nebela Jiabellum, 228
New British Moss, 52
Nuthatch, loi

CEstrus, 158

Opuntia cochinillifera, 32
Orchis tnaculata, 154
Orchis resupinata, 62

Pacrocera, 105
Pamphagus, 245
Pelamyxa villosa, 85

Pipunculns, 157
Platypexa, 157
Platyorinuslavis, 61
Plocamiutn coccineum, 249
Pluinularia Catherina, 248
Poteriocriniis crassus, 6i
Productus giganteus, 63
Productus p7inctatus, 62
Pseudodifflugia gracilis, 245
Ptychoptera, 172

Radiosa, 85
Rhamphomyia, 155
Rhizodus Hibberti, 64
Rhy>icho7iella pleurodon, 76
Rhyphus, 172

Rossendale Rhizopods, 58, 84, 131, 175,
196, 227, 244, 267

Scenopinus, 104

Section of Glaciated Clays at Easthamp-

stead, 136, 137
Spirifera striata, 63
Spirifera trigonatis, 62
Square-Tailed Worm, 80
Stone-Mite, 148
Stratioinyia, 104
Syrphus, 158

Tabanus, 105

Tachydroinia, 157

Tanypus, 172

Telegraphic Communications between

Great Britain, Europe, and the East,

12, 13
Thereva, 104
Trinema acinus, 269
Two Sides of the Medal, 28, 29

Ver?~ucosa, 85
Vertical Camera, 2t
Villosa, 84, 8s
Volucella, 158

Willow-Mite, 147

Xylata, z$%\
Xylophagus, 105

GREGARIOUS SPIDERS.

By G. CADOGAN-MASTERMAN, M.D.

HE story of the bird-
slaying spider is so
nearly apocryphal
that it has all the
fascination of the
untrue for the popu-
lar taste ; so, it is
almost a pity to
spoil the gruesome
legend of Madame
Merian by the ad-
mission that, al-
though the gigantic
Mygale does secure
sleeping or wounded
birds occasionally,
they are usually
humming birds not
half its own size,
and they are none
of its own trapping, since it does not form a web.
This may not be true of every variety, but the spin-
nerets of all I examined were of quite rudimentary
development. And I have seen it come down with
so obviously an unintentional and most disconcerted
flop on the floor of my quarters that even the almost
universal suspensory line was evidently beyond its
textile capabilities, or, at least, out of its line of
business.

I have sometimes thought that this horrible creature
was the avenging Fate of other spiders : that when
they became too horribly bloated, too sated with
lustful slaughter, it crept upon them in the darksome
but never silent night, a living incubus, a hairy, form-
less horror, and with one stab of its poison fangs
recalled the dying agony of an insect hecatomb.

But the still stranger and yet most true story of the

gregarious spider of Paraguay is almost unknown. I

am far away now from books of reference which might

confound me, but I am under the impression that I

No. 313.— January 1891,

told it myself for the first time in England in i860.
The strangeness of it is this : Spiders are the most
solitary of assassins, and, were it not for the anatomist,
we might believe that they were created without
hearts or bowels, for, even the tender passion softens
but for a few fleeting moments the cold-blooded
ferocity of their lives ; many an ardent but too
tempting lover amongst them has been at one
minute the bridegroom and at the next himself the
marriage feast !

I have watched such a swain crouching motionless
at the edge of a web for an hour, yet ever ready for
a backward spring, stilling — we may imagine — the
beating of his vesicular heart lest it should vibrate the
threads too aggravatingly, and casting from six to
eight sheep's eyes at the velvet-robed damsel within.
She, meanwhile, as watchful, almost as motionless,
only meditatively twiddling her palpi as she wonders
if she love him enough to eat him. And, alas, the
next morning I have found his shrivelled remains still
in the old spot, but wrapped in the newest of silk and
his inamorata the most buxom of Artemisias.

Reaumur hoped to cultivate spider silk : he fed his
spinners and spinsters right royally ; he sang to them
chansons d'amour, but nothing could subdue their
longing for arachnidian " long pig " ; the big spiders
ate the little ones, and then, with unabated appetite,
tried to eat each other. A pair of stockings, it is
said, was woven from the silk, but I believe are as
mythical as the web of Penelope.

Imagine, then, the astonishment with which I saw
with my own eyes thousands of large spiders living,
working, peacefully feasting together in webs as big
as a large table-cloth !

It was on the broad sandy road from the capital to
La Trinidad that I met with the first example, and,
although it had been much torn by the wind, it was
large enough to puzzle me as to its nature. The road
is about forty feet wide — road-making in that part
of the world means simply clearing si certain space of

B

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

the few trees likely to be in the way and leaving the
ground as Nature made it — the palm trunk to which
the web was attached at one end stood just within
the rough boundarj' railings, an old mahogany tree
stretched its gnarled branches over half the other side
for the further moorings, so, about twenty-five feet
was its length, its depth six, and it was so far over-
head that I could just touch its lower edge with my
whip as I rode beneath. Being near mid-day it was
untenanted, but the threads were littered with moth-
wings and other remains of insects, but I noticed that
small birds flew through it without hesitation.

From time to time I saw other examples, some
larger than the first, but there was ever one point not
a little mysterious about them ; I had noted in the
evening, perhaps, a perfect web crowded with the
busy workers ; the next day not a trace of it was to
be seen ! There may have been wind, but in any
case one would have expected that some part of its
delicate tracery would have been found clinging to
the trees ; but no — web, spiders, and all had dis-
appeared into the unknown, and it was long before
I could trace what had become of them.

During the lilockade of Asuncion, however, by the
Brazilians, I had a better opportunity than I could have
hoped for to study the economy of these strange
colonies. I was then living with the United States
minister in a very large house, having, as is the
fashion in that part of the world, an enclosed garden,
the patio, in its centre ; and there I found to my
delight six of these wonderful webs one morning.
And with that sublime reasoning we call instinct they
were all close to the ground, were moored to it, in
fact, by a hundred hawsers. Over the roads they
were never less than twelve feet from the ground and,
so, must have missed numbers of moths which fly
lower, but, then, they permitted horsemen and the
high bullock-carts to pass freely beneath.

But this rather forlorn garden was rarely entered
except by myself and a stooping crone, the mother
of one of the native servants, the usual path was
under the shade of the n^assive piazzas which enclosed
it ; so the spiders and I examined each other at our
mutual leisure and convenience. But they seemed to
take very little notice of me, and a double stream
would be passing up and down the main cables within
three inches of my hand-glass with untroubled in-
difference.

The spiders seem to belong to the Epeira, but are
twice as large as our largest specimens ; black, with
the exception of a double row of scarlet spots on the
sides of the oval abdomen, four eyes (says the im-
perfect note amongst my rifled papers), but I think it
should be, four at the top of the head (cephalo-thorax) ;
two lateral, very strong mandibles, and eight stout,
smooth legs nearly an inch in length.

In the centre of the patio was a clump of orange
and peach trees — which there reach quite forest size —
and others at a distance of some forty feet : between

these the welis were extended, the majority in the
usual horizontal position, but one obliquely, a rhom-
boid, with one angle touching the ground. The main
rigging was of stout grey silk, as strong as that with
which purses used to.be netted, these were crossed at
right angles by threads more slender, dividing the
surface into squares of about nine inches each, which
were filled by a geometrical weblet resembling that
spun by our own garden spiders. These did not seem
to be regarded as personal property, for the occupants ■
often changed their location, and a double stream was
ever passing, as I have said, along the main lines,
crawling over or under each other, and never pausing
as ants do when they meet for gossip or petty larceny ;.
but I noticed that the occupant of the centre of the
lesser webs would give it a quick, impatient shake
whenever a companion ventured to leave the public
gangways : yet I have seen three or four feeding
amicably together on the bqdy of a large moth.

As soon as the sun became hot the webs were
quite deserted, and the spiders collected in globular
masses under the shade of the leaves of the orange
trees until evening. But at sunset these crumbled to-
pieces and the spiders in the most leisurely way dis-
persed to their aerial fishing grounds. Great numbers,
of mosquitoes and other minute insects were caught,,
but these were brushed away ; moths, beetles, and
migrating ants — which are temporarily provided with
wings — being the chief and most valued prey. I
satisfied myself, too, that they did not merely suck
their juices as our spiders do, but ate the whole of the
soft parts, which their strong maxilla; made easy
enough. I many times let them strike their fangs
into my finger, but felt no pain beyond the slight
prick of the keen points.

But the oddest trait was that they ate any ]3art of
the web which had been torn loose ; the nearest
spider rolled it up into a ball, moistened it with saliva,
and immediately swallowed it. And that explains
what becomes of part, if not all, of the old ones.

I was long puzzled by the difficulty, how was the
first thread thrown from tree to tree? The spiders
were far too solid to float through the air, and as for
fastening the line to a branch, descending the trunk,
ascending another and dragging the line after them, as
the natives assured me they did, that was clearly im-
possible. But one evening I was fortunate enough to
see it done. There was an iron arch over the mouth
of the algibe — the Moorish tank — in the patio and at
its summit I saw a spider busily weaving a light
tangled ball of silk as large as itself, a current of air
caught it and it floated away nearly to the top of a
tree ten yards away and caught, the spider gave it
two or three tugs to be sure of it, and then with the
utmost nonchalance crawled away to a height which
would be to us as that of St. Paul's, soon came back,
was joined by some companions and in less than
an hour the bridge was made, and a new web
commenced.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

THE DAISY'S PEDIGREE.

By A. II. SwiNTON.

'""I ""WO or three years ago," says Mr. Grant
J- Allen, in the August number of the
"Cornhill," for the year iSSi, "lying in the
sunshine on this self-same tangled undercliff, I
dissected a daisy for the benefit of those readers who
were good enough to favour me with their kind
attention. But that was a purely aesthetic dissection,
for the sake of discovering what elements of beauty
the daisy had got, and why they pleasurably affected
our own senses or appealed with power to our higher
emotions. To-day, however, I propose to dissect
one of these daisies a little more physically and
unravel, if I can, the tangled skein of causes which
has given it its present shape and size, and colour
and arrangement." A very simple and logical
explanation of the natural order of things our
acquaintance now proffers in respect to this well-
favoured flower on the enchanted precincts of the
quiet undercliff, and if lineaments mean aught, then
he has most infallibly unfolded its shadowy pedigree.
"" For," he urges in conclusion, "if we follow down
■the daisies' descent in the inverse order we shall see
that, inasmuch as they have coloured rays, they are
-superior to all rayless composites ; and inasmuch as
composites generally have clustered heads, they are
superior to all other flowers with separate tubular
corollas ; while these, again, are superior to those
•with separate petals ; and all petalled flowers are
superior to all petalless kinds."

"But," it will be slyly asked by our academic
■acquaintance, whom we are accustomed to greet of a
shiny morning on this self-same landslip, "you are
never going to convince me that a fir-tree gave birth
to a rose-bush, a rose-bush gave birth to a heather
clump, a heather clump gave birth to a waste of
eupatory, a waste of eupatory gave birth to a
sunflower, and a sunflower gave birth to a daisy."
Well, no, not precisely ; but to teach the infantile
mind we present ideal jiictures, confessedly inexact,
and it is often possible thus to substantiate that
which we cannot demonstrate ; and to connive at
this same let us leave-our sentimental nook for the
dutiful arena of golf. We have had a cold unpro-
ductive season devoid of 'novelty, say the insect-
hunters, and strolling along the craggy shore, when
the fires are on in July, as numb as any crab, say,
what if we should come upon a pallid, decrepit
daisy, with the florets of the disk few, and some of
them white and arrested in the very process of
turning into those of the ray, just as a sea-anemone
would appear were it petrified when in the act of
extending its feelers ; so that this blossom would
thus actually exhibit to our gaze the last two stages
of development thought out by the anatomist. Well,
everything, it is said, varies on the confines of its
possible existence in its present shape, and one is |

here tempted to enquire what changing forces have
acted on since the golden morning of the daisy-
flower, and whose are the viewless fingers that have
drawn and pinched out a smart frill around its crov/n
of honeycomb? Nay and what cuts a flag into
streamers and spins out a plant into branches and
leaves, if it be not the force of the tossing winds and
rocking tides ? The Jubilee florin falls impressed
from the mint, but only think how any daisy crown
must have been scourged by the north wind, fluttered
by the east wind, breathed upon by the south wind,
and kissed by the west wind ; and how its fibres
variously struck must have vibrated to all the
harmony of heaven and composed atomic music until
the sun's image was fairly expressed ; but let this
pass for a more certain fact, since a glance will
show the unfinished flower as we plucked it upon
the cliff in question, in the very act of unbinding its
golden tresses.

Allowing, next, the daisy head to be an eSample of
fasciation, coming true from seed ; the latter circum-
stance being alone curious, since fasciation is far too
frequent and identical in the vegetable kingdom to
be termed a monstrosity, for only think of the
cauliflowers and cockscombs, and all the wilding
growths of this description never destined to become
species, already chronicled in SciEXCE-GossiP ; we
hear it likewise asserted that all flowers with separate
tubular corollas are superior to those with separate
petals. Well, as I recall, on the 17th of September,
1883, as I chanced to be walking along a dark Surrey
lane in the neighbourhood of the Green Man tavern,
at Worplesdon, I noticed in the bramble-overrun
hedgerow the curiously fingered blossom of the
Large White Convolvulus (C scpiuiii, Linn.) now
represented by a specimen, which shows how such a
bell-shaped flower may revert to a petalate one by
dividing down between the veins. Whether the
ancestral blooms wore this eccentric passion-flower
likeness on this creeper I cannot think, albeit the
convolvulus structure assigns to it these five petals ;
or how these same petals became a white poke, as
children call it, I will not say, though this be by
some reckoned to have been a freak of nature for
which the insects are responsible ; and without a
doubt insects always enjoy to dive to the bottom of
it. Thus much will, however, serve to indicate that
not alone have we " still several fish in the very act
of changing into amphibians left in a few muddy
tropical streams ; and several oviparous creatures in
the very act of changing into mammals left us in the
isolated continent of Australia ; " but that we also
possess in our own lanes and fields, flowers crystallized
in the very act of their metamorphosis ; so that not
tacitly has evolution "almost always left its foot-
marks behind it, visibly imprinted upon the earth
through all its ages ; " but the continuous operation
of this law likewise leaves behind it its tags and ends
as it weaves the woof and warp of fate. Now it is

1} 2

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

just the recognition of these tags and ends that is
wanting to establish the really clever problematical
reasoning of Mr. Grant Allen in regard to the daisy's
pedigree, as I have little doubt ; and if the reader is
of my mind, he will acknowledge that the Editor of
Science-Gossip in advocating the recognition here
of law in place of the byword of monstrosity, applied
invariably to that which we do not understand, has
thereby cast a flood of light on the past history of the
flowers.

There remains a little finishing touch of purple on
the flowerets of the daisy resembling the mark of a
copying ink pencil, that is apt to attract notice.
Were a Grinling Gibbons set to carve a flower-head, it
is probable that he would turn it on the wheel, and
had he afterwards to colour it he would ask but for
few pigments, for robbed of compound hues, pattern
and half-.tones, the floral colours can be readily
suggested, and in point of fact fully-coloured flowers
such as dahlias and roses undeniably match well.
Perhaps one of the most surprising things to meet
with anywhere on this score is a field of roses, where
velvety full-coloured blossoms, red, purple, and
yellow, spring side by side from the wreck of the
things that were ; and curiously enough there may
be sublimed from the said black mould peacock hues
that will surpass the roses themselves in lustre. I
allude to the prismatic hues of aniline, first discovered
in 1826 by Unverdorben in the products of the dry
distillation of indigo, and in 1834, proved by Range
to be a constituent of coal tar ; and which like
aluminium, must be reputed one of the commonest
things in the world. Though I have not hitherto
obtained great results from staining flower bulbs
with prepared aniline dyes, I might yet hint that
some of the shale hills that diversify the black
country, containing as they do so much of the
innocuous raw material, might if ground to powder
and mixed with sewage or otherwise, work marvels
on the parterres ; for after walking some weary miles
over them, I can only aver that grass grows on them
luxuriantly and ragweed flowers prodigiously, nor
will I ever say that it was not a trifle more golden in
the sun. Indeed at the present the history of our
surprise garden blooms is proverbially far too much
of a mystery and too little of a science ; for all I
could elicit from a professor regarding his educated
favourites was, that they were obtained by crossing,
but when and where escaped him.

Few people in England have the slightest idea of
the high value attached to scientific education in all
the Australian colonies. We have just received a
" Prospectus of the Stawell School of Mines, Art,
Industry, and Science," This is a well-known
Victorian mining town — whose population is not yet
commensurate with its pubhc spirit. Whilst we are
talking about adopting a Technical Education Act,
they are adopting one of their own.

NOTE ON A FOOT-WORKING BLOWPIPE.

By H. DURRANT.

AMONG the portion of our working mineralo-
gists there are those who have often felt the
want of some method to produce the necessary stream
of air for the fusing of the diff"erent substances, so as
to do away with the blowing through the mouth.

I propose in this short paper to give instructions
for making one, which, though rough and simple,
is very efficient, which after all is the great deside-
ratum. First of all then, an old square table is
wanted, mine is an old machine-stand, which serves
the purpose admirably, being very firm ; if you have
not got a spare table, you can easily make one,
providing you do not wish "a thing of beauty,"
instead of a working machine ; if so, get a carpenter
to make the table for you, and so combine the two
qualities ; though after all it will not be an orna-
ment for the drawing-room. Supposing you have your
stand ready, the next thing you will want is a good
strong pair of workshop bellows. About four or five
inches from the floor, fasten a shelf under the table.
Six inches higher fasten a similar shelf. Now take
your bellows, lay them lengthwise along the lowest
shelf, so that the handles will project beyond the side
of the table.

Fasten them in their place ; first by a screw through
the lower handle into the shelf, and next by a piece
of sheet-iron over the nozzle, fasten each side by a
screw. Next take a piece of wood, the same width
as the handle of the bellows, let it project about three
inches over the top bellows-handle ; fasten in place
by a couple of screws. Underneath it drive a staple ;
ditto on top. You will want now about a yard and
a half of rubber tubing.

If the tubing was now fastened to the nozzle of
the bellows, and the other end to the blowpipe, you
would not, by working the bellows, be able to obtain
a continuous stream of air, which is what we want j
so we must make an air-chamber, to contain a supply
of air while the bellows are being refilled.

For this purpose make a rectangular box about
six inches by two and a half. Before nailing the
sides up, a piece of thin cloth should be inserted
between the joints, to make it air-tight.

The bottom of the box (one of the smaller ends),
will have to have a round hole cut in, and a little
clack fastened over it, to prevent air from rushing
back into bellows when pressure is released.

A hole must also be cut in the top and another in
one of the sides. Now get a piece of copper or brass
tubing to fit tightly into rubber tubing ; fix one end
of your rubber tubing tightly round nozzle of bellows,
bend the piping round, so that it will come under
second shelf, in which a corresponding hole with the
one in bottom of box should be cut. Nail your box
on over this hole, tightly to the shelf. Now to make
the tube fit air-tight, you must get a cork, cut a

HARD WICKE' S S CIENCE- G 0 SSIP,

hole through with a sharp knife, making it just a
shade smaller than copper tube, fix the cork in the
hole of the box underneath, and push in the copper
tube, which should be attached to the rubber-tubing.
Do the same by the hole in the top of box, inserting
cork and copper tube as before, to which must be
fastened another piece of rubber tubing, carrying it
up under the table, and bringing it through a hole in
the front of the table, a little way.

Fix your blowpipe in this tube, inserting a cork if
not fitting tightly enough.

The blowpipe can now be made firm by fastening
an upright of wood on the top of the table, and
fastening the blowpipe to it by bending wire nails
round. We have now a hole left in the side of the
box.

Now what we want is a bag to contain the supply
of air necessary to keep the blow-pipe in full swing.

When you can obtain a nice continuous stream of
air, proceed as follows :

Obtain a spiral spring and fit between handles of
bellows. Or to the staple tie a piece of cord, bring
it to the top of the table, pass it over a small pulley,
and attach a heavy weight. Now for the pedal ; to
the staple on under side of handle of bellows attach
another piece of cord and fasten it to the end of a
strip of wood, broad enough to place the foot on.
You will now find that after you have pressed this
with your right foot, on the pressure being relaxed,
the bellows will be expanded by the weight attached
to the cord.

Of course they are thus filled with air. It will be
rather awkward at first to continue the pedalling,
but you will soon get used to it, and once you get
the bladder filled, a steady continuous motion keeps
a nice flame. You can, if you like, weight the

Fig. 2. — A, Cork ; B, Cop-
per tube ; c, India-
rubber tube.

Fig. I. — Foot- working Blow-pipe, a, bottom shelf; b, top shelf; c, bellows ; d, strip of wood nailed
on handle of bellows ; ee, pulley wheels ; F, weight ; G, pedal for foot ; H, air chamber ; k', foot-
ball bladder ; l, blow-pipe ; m, upright of wood ; n, hole in table ; oo, copper tubing ; p, cord.

The bag to produce this must of course collapse by
cts own elasticity or by weights judiciously placed.

The best and most easily obtainable is a common
football bladder. Fix the nozzle over a copper tube
and cork it in as you did the other tubes, allowing
■room for the bladder to expand without coming in
contact with sides of box.

You will now find, if you have followed instruc-
tions, that if you blow the bellows with your hand,
the bladder will fill ; once filled, a steady motion with
the bellows, never jerky, will keep a constant stream
of air issuing from the blowpipe ; when the blowing
is stopped, a stream of air will continue to flow from
pipe till the bladder is exhausted.

If the bladder soon collapses after the blowing is
stopped, the wind is escaping somewhere other than
through the nozzle of blowpipe. Light a candle
and go all round joints, &c., and you will soon find
out where. Remedy : stop up with putty or pitch,
and do not use the machine again till thoroughly set.

bladder, by tying weights at each end of a cloth, and
arranging it nicely over the bladder. This will give
you a stronger blast of air, but the pedalling wiU be
much harder, because the bladder empties much mere
quickly, and also takes more pressure to keep it
filled.

I think there is nothing more to say now. Its use
being too well known by mineralogists, &c., except
that with care, a flame eight or nine inches long is easily
obtainable with a wax candle. All kinds of glass-
ware for naturalists can be made with a very small
amount of trouble, such as dipping-tubes, test-tubes,
capillary-tubes, tubes for collecting small insects,
&c., funnels, and a host of other similar articles, of
which I hope to say further in another paper if the
Editor can spare me space.

As it is I am afraid I have taken up too much room
already, but if any one not quite seeing principle, will
write to me (address with Editor), enclosing stamped
envelope for reply, I will give further information.

HARD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

PECULIARITIES IN SITE AND STRUC-
TURE OF BIRDS' NESTS.
A GOOD many years ago I contributed a short
paper to Science-Gossip,* bearing the above
title, the few instances therein cited being culled
from my natural history diaries ; and now, since
peculiarities in the form, size, and coloration of
birds' eggs are being freely adduced and discussed,
perhaps a few additional instances of those of site
and structure of their nests may not be out of place.

Great titmouse, or oxeye [Pa}-ies major). — On
June loth, 1884, I discovered in St. John's
Cemetery, Elswick, a nest of this handsome bird,
containing callow young, which had been built
within one of the numerous fire-clay pipes used for
marking out sections of the burial ground. This
pipe is pentagonal in form, is open at the bottom,
and has a sloping top or roof upon which is impressed
a capital letter ; it has a depth of 16 inches at the
back, and 12 inches at the front, the roof sloping
from back to front ; and in the centre line of each
side, that joins the front at right angles, is a circular
hole 175 inch in diameter whose centre is 5 inches
distant from the open bottom, and in the front or
face is a similar hole whose centre is 8 inches from
the bottom : the front is 5 inches wide, and these
two sides are each 3 inches wide, whilst the
remaining two sides, which meet in an acute angle
at the back of the pipe, are 3-5 inches wide ; the
width, or diameter, from front to back being 6
inches. The pipe had been sunk into the grass-and-
herbage-covered ground until the lower edge of the
front and higher hole was level with the surface,
whilst the two lower lateral holes were of course
buried beneath it. The bulky nest, which consisted
of moss, cow and horse hair, sheep's wool and
rabbit down, was beneath the level of the lateral
holes, and was reached by the front hole which was
the sole point of ingress and egress. On several
occasions I sat near by and watched the parent birds
bringing abundant food for their young. They
frequently, though not invariably, first alighted in a
young elm-tree which overhung the home of their
progeny, flew thence to the top of the sunk pipe, and
thence to the hole of entrance, though not in-
frequently the female flew direct to the hole without
alighting elsewhere ; the moment the parent bird
had alighted on the roof of their home, the young
ones gave utterance to their expectant cries. The
food, wliich was assiduously catered for by both
the male and the female, consisted chiefly, if not
entirely, of caterpillars ; and on one occasion on
which I timed their visits, within ten minutes each
bird had brought food three times, notwithstanding
that they were aware of and startled by my
proximity, and thereby prevented from their normal
procedure.

Vol. ix., p. 203.

Common, or "Kitty" wren {Troglodytes pai-vu-
lus). — Who of us, as nest-hunting schoolboys even,
have not become acquainted with the more or less
unfinished, so-called "cock-nests" of this familiar
and favourite little bird, more than one of which
might sometimes be found built in the same hedge-
bank not far distant from the true, or breeding nest,
and at that time devoutly believed to have been
built by the cock bird for the purpose of roosting in
at night. The "cock-sit" (cock's-seat), too, which
we generally managed to make out in the bankside,
near by the nest of the "yowley," or yellow-hammer
{Emhcriza citrinella), was also considered to be the
roosting place of the male or cock bird, it being
taken for granted, I assume, that the hen bird alone
occupied the nest, and that the cock would not be
or ought not to be very far distant from his mate.
Possibly, however, it may be news to many readers of
Science-Gossip to learn that these cock-nests,
as well as the true nests, of the wren may occasion-
ally be obtained at the expense of another familiar
and favourite bird — the swallow ; three instances of
which have fallen under my observation, all in one
season, and at no great distance apart. The first
instance was on June 9th, 18S5, when I had my
attention drawn to the circumstance of a wren
carrying up materials to a swallow's nest built in the
roof of a high wooden hayshed or stack-cover ; and,
on watching a while, I observed the wren carry up a
billful of dry grass, enter the nest, deposit its cargo,
and then depart, softly singing part of the time :
hence, I concluded that it was the male bird who
was thus spending a part of his superfluous energy on.
the construction of a cock-nest, whilst his partner
was engaged in the arduous task of incubation
somewhere near ; for the wren had here been for
some time past in full and vigorous song, occasion-
ally, too, singing on the wing as he passed from one
elevated perch to another. On a cursory examina-
tion of the nest of the sv/allow, it was found to be
quite new — of the present season — to be complete in
the shell and apparently ready for its lining of soft
materials ; and that the birds had not yet forsaken it,
but flew into and around the shed, notwithstanding
that the wren was engaged in building a top or dome
of dry grass and moss to it. Not until July i8th,
however, when the hay was being stacked under this
shed, and the usurped nest could be reached from
the top of the stack, was it disturbed ; though for
some time past it had obviously been forsaken by the
rightful owners, the swallows, and was as obviously
not being used as a breeding-nest by the usurping
wren. On being taken down from its site, it was
found to be a large fine and evidently completed
shell, ready for its lining of dry grass or hay and
feathers, etc. ; and that the superimposed nest of
the wren was of the usual domed character, and
composed of fine dry grass outwardly, and moss with
a little sheep's wool and a few feathers inwardly,

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

whilst ihat portion of the nest below its side entrance
descended into the mud nest of the swallow.

The second nest of a swallow usurped by the
wren I found built against one of the beams
. supporting the ceiling of one of a group of deserted
thatched cottages which were being allowed to fall
into decay, the sashes having been removed from
the windows and thus allowing a free ingress to the
birds, which privilege the swallows had freely
availed themselves of, as many of their nests were to
be found within. This, too, was a nest of the season,
complete in the shell, the top of which was within a
couple of inches of the ceiling ; and it had evidently
been having its lining of hay and feathers put in by
its rightful owners when it had been unsurped by the
wren, whose domed nest (consisting of moss chiefly)
had been, as in the former case, built within the
open nest of the swallow, the dome being carried up
to the ceiling. As the date on which this compound
nest was found was so late as July 7th, it is not im-
probable that this, too, was a cock-nest of the wren,
and had been completed for some time before its
discovery. In the third instance, the wrens reared
a brood in the nest of the swallow which they had
usurped, or at least utilised, in the roof of an out-
building not a quarter of a mile distant from the
second nest recorded, and certainly not more than a
half mile from the site of the first, the site of the
second being intermediate : this third nest, however,
of which I had intimation, I failed to get to see ; but
I have no doubt whatever of the accuracy of the
account given me of it, though it is not impossible
that it may have been an old and deserted nest of
the swallow which the wrens had simply utilised as
a foundation upon which to erect their own edifice.

With respect to the spare or cock nests of the
wren, the question arises. For what purpose are
they built ? Are they really built by the male bird
alone, as a shelter for himself during the nesting
season and possibly later on in the year? Or, are
they built by him simply because he is so full of life
and vigour that he must be busy, at a season when
there is a superabundance of food and the numerous
young have not yet been hatched to give both him-
self and partner labour sufficient in catering for their
appetites ? Or, is it possible that they are buik by
him prospectively for the accommodation of a
second brood after the first have been got oft", and
subject to the approval of mater? This, perhaps,
would account for their being discarded as unsuitable
in site or structure, and another nest more in
accordance with her tastes or requirements con-
structed. That this extra nest is, sometimes at least,
used by the wren as a place of shelter at night
towards the close of the year, I have had proof of;
since I have visited one such nest with a lantern
almost every night in the latter half of October
between the hours of nine and ten, and almost
invariably found a wren snugly ensconced within, and

obviously much taken aback at having a bright light
shone full in upon it from the small rounded entrance
in the front of its very comfortable chamber.

Pied wagtail {Motacilla lugiibris). — I have seen a
nest of this bird which had been built in an old nest
of the swallow, up in the roof of a " hemmel " (as
the open-fronted outbuildings for the retreat of the
grazing sheep and cattle are termed in the pastoral
districts of Northumberland) ; and it was composed
of an abundance of sheep's wool and hair, with a
little dry grass and a few fibrous roots, the whole
forming a dense lining to the utilised swallow's nest.

In this nest the wagtails had successfully reared a
brood of young ; and in the last week in July, when
I examined the nest, it still contained some portions
of the egg-shells. Again, built in the straw laid up
in the skeleton loft of this same hemmel — a loft
formed by a few poles laid across the beams — I found,
on August I2th, another nest of the pied wagtail,
which contained well-grown young, and which were
probably a second nest and brood of the same pair of
birds as had already built and bred in the nest of the
swallow situate in the roof near by.

Though speaking of the above nest of the swallow
as an old one, and probably simply utilised by the wag-
tail, it may still be considered as possibly usurped ;
for the swallow frequently uses its nest for more than
one season, raising the mud walls when necessary and
thus deepening it ; and the resident wagtail, which
breeds early, had probably taken possession before
the return of the swallows from their winter retreat in
the far south, and thus might have prevented these
birds from reoccupying their nest of a former season.

The swallow {^Hirundo rusticd). — The nest of the
swallow, as I have noted it in our rural districts, is
usually built at a considerable elevation within farm
outhouses, sheds, and hemmels ; being built against
and adherent to the beams, couples and rafters, as
also other portions of the woodwork and stonework
of the roof ; though, of course, when a building is
low, the altitude at which hangs the nest is lessened ;
and in one instance which has come under my
observation, the distance was not more than three
feet from the ground. This lowly-hung nest was
attached to the side of a beam in the roof of an
occupied pigstye, and contained four eggs much in-
cubated ; the upper storey of this tiny outbuilding
was a hen-house ; hence the short beam or two in
the roof of the gloomy stye. A second swallow's
nest, built in the roof of an unused privy, was barely
six feet distant from the ground. A third nest,
taken on June i8th, 1881, was peculiar in the fact of
its having a lauter of four unincubated eggs lying on
their bed of hay and abundant soft fowl feathers ;
whilst beneath this thick warm lining was a second
consisting also of fine hay and a few feathers, upon
which lay two other eggs obviously of the present
season's laying, and which, on being blown, proved
to be quite fresh, the yolk of one of them only being a

8

BA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

little stiffened, as might reasonably enough be expected
from the heat imparted to them from the bodies of
the birds during the process of the second lining of
the nest and the egg-laying, combined with the
dryness of their situation. This double lauter of
eggs was probably due to the death, by accident or
natural causes, of the first female owner of the nest,
and her partner's taking a second mate who had
commenced housekeeping on her own account by
having a second lining added to the nest upon which
to deposit her own incipient offspring.

Sand martin (Cotile rijiaria).— On }\mQ ^ih, 1885,
I took from its deep burrow in the bank of the
stream Blythe, a nest of the sand martin which
contained four eggs unincubated, and which was
composed of dry grass and grass-stems, and lined
with soft fowl feathers and a little dry grass. This
nest, like that of the swallow described above, was a
double one ; for beneath this upper lining upon
which rested the four eggs, was a second (a former)
lining of fowl feathers, upon which lay two other
eggs quite fresh though very dirty. Here, too, in all
probability, some fatality had overtaken the original
female owner of the nest after she had deposited two
of her eggs ; and her partner had then found a second
mate, whose nearly completed lauter the upper four
eggs would be. The sand martin lays from five to
six purely white eggs, which, however, are generally
more or less soiled and abundantly speckled with the
dark-green excreta of the large fleas (Pulex) with
which their nests almost invariably swarm.

Charles Robson.

NOTES CONCERNING THE DISTRIBU-
TION OF MOLLUSCA IN THE THAMES
ESTUARY.
By A. J. Jenkins and L. O. Grocock.

SINCE the publication of the article upon "The
Distribution and Habits of the British Hydro-
bias," Science-Gossip, 1890, page 103, it has been
our endeavour to try our best to work up the distri-
bution of the various other species of mollusca in-
habiting the marshes of the Thames Estuary, with a
view to studying the habits and localisation of the
brackish-water species in particular, as well as the
discovery of the distribution and true limits of the
HydrobitC and allied forms to be found in close
proximity to the river.

All the British I lydrobioe have been taken from the
Thames marshes, and the two species, Hydrobia
similis, Drap., and H. Jenldnsi, Smith, have not up
to the present been found elsewhere in Britain.

The district which we decided to investigate is
included between the commencement of the Plum-
stead Marshes, near Woolwich Arsenal, and North
Woolwich, upon the Essex bank of the Thames, down
to a point three miles below the forts at Tilbury and
Gravesend.

Nearly twelve months have elapsed since we com-

menced working this district in a systematic manner,,
and during this period the course of the Thames has
been followed from Woolwich to below Gravesend,
and many excursions have been made to the other
side at North Woolwich, Beckton, Coldharbour
Point to Purfleet, and over the marshes at Grays,
Thurrock, and Tilbury. During these excursions we
have indulged our prying propensities to the best of
our ability, using our dredges freely over many miles
of ditches of fresh and brackish water, at the same
time keeping a sharp look-out for terrestrial forms
either possessed of shells or destitute of them ; care-
fully recording each day's experience gained, and
taking notes of fresh captures.

We have also received much valuable assistance^
and have occasionally been accompanied in our expe-
ditions by the Rev. J. W. Horsley, the indefatigable
President and Founder of the now flourishing Wool-
wich District Natural History Society, which under
the guidance of Mr. Horsley has organised a series of
Saturday half-holiday field-excursions for the study of
the fauna and flora of the district.

The marshes bordering the Thames are very ex-
tensive, and a considerable portion is devoted to
market-gardening and grazing purposes, a large area
still remaining almost in its original pristine condition.
The great national workshop, Woolwich Arsenal, is
built upon the Plumstead Marshes, and a range,
fifteen hundred yards in length, is devoted to gun-
practice near the Arsenal. Many chemical and
manure works are also built upon them. At Purfleet
there is a rather extensive salt-marsh.

Lying, as they do, considerably below high-water
mark, the marshes were many years ago protected
by a river-wall or earthwork. The origin of this
gigantic earthwork, which confines the Thames to its
present channel, is lost in obscurity, but probably
various portions have been constructed at different
periods. Intersecting the marshes in various direc-
tions are numerous dykes or ditches, which abound
in the various forms of life which delight the eye and
mind of the biologist, conchologist, and microscopist.

In places near the river the ditches are connected with
the Thames by drains and sluices, and such ditches
being liable to the overflow of the river occasionally,
at high tides, causes the water contained therein to
be more or less brackish. These ditches form the
habitat of our Hydrobice and their alhes. A long
walk across the marshes in fine weather is very
exhilarating and enjoyable ; after fogs and heavy
rain it is not so pleasant, the roads and paths are
then almost impassable owing to mud ; the tall coarse
grass when wet is very tiring to walk through, and
the mist or vapour covering the marshes all around
renders the journey very monotonous, which is
occasionally varied by the necessity of jumping a
tolerably wide and deep dyke, or clambering over
very high fences to avoid making a detour of several
miles. Sometimes, too, mishap befalls the unwary

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

naturalist, the plank which serves him for a bridge
refuses to support him when half across, or he fails to
leap properly and gracefully an extra-wide ditch,
which ends in his immersion in clear fluid or mud.

The marshes between East Greenwich and Plum-
stead were frequently investigated between the years
1883-9, rendering it unnecessary to go over the same
ground again.

Probably many years have elapsed since the
Thames Estuary was thoroughly worked by concho-
logists, and this is confirmed by the recent publication
of localities in which species have long ceased to exist,
and by the discovery of the new species of Hydrobia.

A few details respecting the limits of various
species may be of interest to the readers of Science-
Gossip. The marsh brackish-water sliells consist of
six species, if we include Mr. Smith's new Hydro-
bia, which is now generally considered by eminent
conchologists, both at home and abroad, to be
worthy of specific rank. They are as follows :
Hydrobia uIvce, Penn, H. similis, Drap., II. ventrosa,
Mont., H. yeiikinsi, Smith, Assimiiiia Gi-ayana,
Leach, and Mchinpis tnyosotis, Mont. A pecuhar
dwarfed variety of Littoniia rudis also occurs with
H. vejitrosa in brackish water at Tilbury.

Of these species, A. Grayana, M. myosotis and
H. ulva: are most marine in habit ; H. vaitrosa
inhabits ditches which are decidedly more brackish
than those which ^. similis and/I. Jenkinsi frequent.

H. ulvcc may be taken alive upon mud, and in
partially dry ditches at Grays, Tilbury, and Gravesend,
by the riverside, and sparingly in brackish-water
ditches near Greenhithe village, in company with
H. vcnti-osa and A. Grayana. It has not yet been
taken higher up the river.

Many years ago H. j/w/Z/j' inhabited ditches between
Greenwich and Woolwich, which were occasionally
flooded by the tide, and this locality has been given
by Mr. J. W. Williams in a recent work published in
1S89. This locality was no doubt correct in Jeffreys'
time, but they have (in company with other species)
long since been forced to migrate lower and lower
down the river, owing to the pollution of the ditches
by various factories, chemical and gas-works, and
Thames sewage. As far back as 1883 not even a
dead shell could be obtained from this locality.

Industrious searching for this pretty little mollusc
has led us to the conclusion that this species is
doomed to speedy extinction in this district. It
seems always to have been peculiar in Britain to the
Thames marshes, and, like H. Jenkinsi, in all pro-
bability was originally introduced from abroad. It
appears to be limited to a single narrow ditch a few
hundred yards in length, and with two exceptions we
have not succeeded in finding them elsewhere. Once
a dead shell was taken with H. jfenkinsi from a ditch
at Beckton, and once a single live specimen with the
same species between Erith and Darenth Creek. In
the same ditch with H. similis may be found a

number of H. ventrosa, a few Limncea tru7tcatula,
and dead shells only, of A. Grayana.

Occasionally a few shells of H. similis have been
collected, which are of a clear, pellucid texture. Mr.
Marshall has proposed to call this variety V. Candida,
see "Journal of Conchology," vol vi. p. 141. It
has been deemed necessary to strictly preserve the
habitat of this rare species, so as not to be instru-
mental in its extermination as a British species.

H. ventrosa inhabits in great abundance brackish-
water ditches between Erith and Gravesend, and
may be collected on the north bank of the Thames
at Purfleet, Grays, and Tilbury. The shells from
the different localities vary somewhat, but hardly
sufficient to be considered as distinct varieties. A
short and rather tumid form occurs in a ditch near
the river and training-ships at Grays.

H. Jenkinsi is now, and for some years is likely to
be, the most abundant Hydrobia of the Thames
marshes. When collected in 1883 in ditches at East
Greenwich, it was fairly plentiful there ; two years
later, a few shells were taken at Plumstead, but they
were by no means common at that time. They are
now extinct between Greenwich and Woolwich,
owing to the same cause which forced H. similis
and A. Grayana to retreat lower down the river. At
certain periods the new species fairly swarm in the
ditches at Plumstead marshes, upon duck-weed,
chara, and the bright green ribbon-like weed Entero-
morpha intestinalis, Linn., which is so common in
brackish water. As mentioned in the above article,
they are a very active and hardy species, capable of
existing for prolonged periods in quite fresh, and
even in hard tap-water.

They have been taken in winter from beneath the
ice, and hibernating in the banks of their habitat.
Like the other species, the shells from different
localities are extremely variable, and several forms
differ sufficiently from the type to be considered as
distinct varieties. One form in particular which
occurs with the type at Beckton is peculiar in having
a much shorter spire, and very tumid body whorl.
They are strongly carinated and tufted, and the
suture is somewhat deeper than the type. Upon th
dorsal side there is a considerable bulging out of the
penultimate whorl upon the left side, giving the
shell a distorted appearance. In this condition they
somewhat resemble enlarged H. similis. It has
been suggested that these examples are shells that
have been stopped in growth by the drying up of the
ditch, or some other cause. Provisionally it is
proposed to call this variety or monstrosity H.
Jenkinsi, V. tumida, Jenkins. This species now
exists in considerable abundance in ditches at Beckton,
and extends from the Arsenal wall at Plumstead to
a point midway between Darenth Creek and
Greenhithe. In all probability a few years will find
them extending down the river as far as Gravesend.
H. Jenkinsi was at one time mistaken for IT. similis,

10

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

owing to the latter species not being generally known
to conchologists, and it was largely distributed to
collectors as that species. Linnic^aperegra, Planorhis
spirorbis, and P. complaiiatiis exist in the same habitat
as this Hydrobia.

Assiminia Grayana and Llelainpiis viyosotis are
more or less abundant between Coldharbour Point
and Purfleet, and from Grays to three miles below
Tilbury Fort, and we have traced them from
Greenhithe to below Gravesend. A. Grayana exists
in abundance in the canal at Gravesend, as well as in
ditches between Northfleet and Greenhithe.

Both species are wanderers, and they may frequently
be picked up many yards from the water's edge.

About twenty species of common fresh-water
moUusca have been collected upon the marshes, the
forms which generally prevail upon either side of the
river are Bythinia tentaculata, B. Leackii, Planorbis
spirorhiSf P. vortex, P. complanatics, LimncEa peregra,
L. pahistris, Physa fontinalis. The most local are
Planorbis nautileus, P. contortus, Liinnaa stagiialis,
L. truncatula, and Physa hypnorum.

For terrestrial shells we can only testify to species
upon our side of the river, and no doubt with more
leisure many more species will be discovered. Helix
nemoralis and its varieties bimarginata, UbeUula, and
rubella are the prevailing marsh forms, together with
Arion ater, Snccinea putris, S. elegafts, Helix cantiana,
H. ritfescens, H. virgata, H. kispida, H. caperata and
H. concinna. Helix hortensis and Cyclostonia elegans
are found in the neighbourhood of the chalk.

So far our list comprises upwards of sixty species
and varieties of land and freshwater shells inhabiting
the marshes of the Thames Estuary. Another twelve
months' work may add largely to this list of District
Mollusca, as many forms, like the slugs and Zonites,
have not been yet properly worked up.

THE ROMAUNT OF BEDEGAR.

An Autobiography.

By the Rev. H. Friend, F.L.S.

I WAS born at Rosebower, on Solway Moss, in
the summer of 1880. Having inherited a pre-
cocious tendency to look about me, and made inquiry
respecting things in general, and my own history in
particular, it dawned upon me while I was yet very
youthful that I might find profit in looking up my
family pedigree. I had not the faintest idea when I
set to work how arduous a task I had undertaken,
nor could I have conceived that our history would
show so many changes and vicissitudes, or lead me
back to so hoary an age, as I eventually found to be
the case ; and as I feel sure there are very few, even
among the students of genealogies and family history
who are fully acquainted with these details, I have
ventured to write my autobiography. In so doing,
I have the impression that I am the first who has

attempted to give anything like a connected or
exhaustive account of the subject from the stand-
point of the genealogist or historian. I even flatter
myself that those persons who have paid special
attention to the place which my ancestors have filled
in the economy of medicine are unable to present so
clear an account of me as I am now about to lay
before you.

Our family name was Deker, or Degar, which by
a curious coincidence means in the languages of the
East very much what "dagger" means in English.
It is, indeed, curious to observe how frequently this
name, slightly modified in various ways, is used in a
great number of languages to convey the idea of
something sharp or piercing. At the risk of being
regarded as boastful, I will at once inform my
readers that I have traced our family name back to
very ancient times, for I find in the oldest historical
work now in existence that one of my remote an-
cestors, Ben-deker by name, was appointed by
Solomon, the King of Israel, to be one of the twelve
officers whose duty it was to provide victuals for the
king and his household. This mention of Ben-deker
in Jewish history is sufficient to show that already in
Solomon's day Deker had become an established
name. Learned writers are agreed that this name is
derived from a word which means to pierce, or stab ;
this word we find in the Hebrew language under the
form of Dakar. Hence Deker means the slabber, or
he who pierces ; and as Ben is the word for son,
Ben-deker means the son of the stabber, then the
little stabber. I have reason to believe that the
name was given to the earliest representative of our
family on account of his skill in the use of the spear
or sword in times of war ; for I find that when Jehu
went forth to war he was accompanied by a member
of our family who bore the name of Bidekar, and had
been promoted to the post of captain on account of
his chivalry. The reader may consult I Kings iv. 9,
and 2 Kings ix. 25.

Now every one is aware that, by the association
of ideas, names are continually being transferred
from one thing to another which bears some resem-
blance, in one way or another, to the original. Thus
the word needle is applied to a little pointed instru-
ment used by industrious girls and housewives, as
well as to an ancient monument of a similar shape
which once stood on Egyptian soil, but now adorns
the Thames Embankment. The musical pipe of the
Hebrew and the tobacco pipe of the smoker bear the
same name, though their uses are so widely different,
because they are each hollow ; and hence we have
many other things called pipes for the same reason.
In exactly the same way the people who first used
the word Dakar in the sense of stabbing, called not
only a clever soldier Deker, a stabber, but applied
the same term to such plants or other things as
pricked or pierced the skin of the unwary, just as the
Scotch thistle is reputed to have stabbed or pierced

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

II

the foot of a Dane. In course of time, therefore,
the name Bidekar, or Bedegar, as some people pro-
nounced it, i.e., the little stabber, came to be the
recognised term for a thistle, as being the most
common of the prickle-bearing plants. We therefore
have now to turn away from the historical personages
who, a thousand years before the birth of Christ, had
made themselves famous by the use of the spear, and
look at the thistle, which had for a similar reason
inherited the same name ; and in order to carry on
my story it will be necessary to say that the Arab
physicians must next be consulted, seeing that they
for some centuries bestowed upon my relatives the
most scrupulous attention. Perhaps I ought to
remark that for a long period these learned men took
an important part in the spread of medical informa-
tion among the other races 'of mankind, and having
discovered certain remedies for the ills of the flesh,
they introduced these to the strangers beyond the
seas, along with the names by which they were
known in Arabia. It was in this way that the
Greeks, Romans, and other peoples of early as well
as more modern times came into the possession of
various medicinal herbs which they often knew only
by their Arabic names. When they wished to enter
these names in their list of medicines, however, it
was necessary that they should add an equivalent
term from their own vocabulary which should make
it possible for others to identify the article when
necessary ; and it is thus that I have found myself (in
the person of my ancestors) transferred from Arabia
Felix to classical Greece, where the people were
wont to speak of me under two names, viz., Bedegar
and Akantha-leuke. I confess that, while I felt
flattered at seeing my forefathers thus introduced to
the famous Grecians, I could not at first understand
what they meant by this new name by which they
translated the old family name of Bedegar. Upon
inquiry, however, I found that leuke was a Greek
term meaning white, and akantha soon suggested to
my mind a spinous or thorny plant usually known as
the acanthus. Thus I found that the Greek regarded
the white acanthus as being similar to if not the
same as bedegar. This idea was soon abundantly
confirmed, for I read that when a Roman dealer in
herbs saw the physician display his bedegar, he
exclaimed, " Wiiy, that is Spina alba!" I happened
to know enough Latin to be able to translate these
words, and I found that while the word alba, like
the Greek leuke, meant white, spina corresponded
with acanthus. All this is matter of history, and, if
it were necessary, I could easily mention the names
of ancient sages who have favoured my predecessors
with their kindly notice.

While I cannot help feeling a little proud of the
distinguished position which the name of our family
was securing during the early ages of the Christian
era, there is one matter which has given me con-
siderable anxiety. I am sorry to find that when the

early physicians, who lived in lands remote from
that which constituted my early home, found that
they could not always obtain the genuine Bedegar
for their patients, they applied the famous name to
other articles found nearer home ; and thus the honour
which had for so many years centred about the Arab
name began to be dimmed. Of this I shall have to
say a little more shortly, but it is needful at this
point to refer to a few of the other names by which
we came to be known, either occasionally or regularly,
in various parts of Europe. I must also show how
many ups and downs our family history experienced,
owing to the translation of those names from one
language into another, and what curious results fol-
lowed this process. One thing is a source of comfort
to me, however, and it is this. No matter where we
might be carried by the merchant, or what vicissitudes
we might experience in going from country to country,
the people almost invariably associated our old family
name with the new names which they gave us, and
thus I can boast the possession of the original title
to-day : though, as will be seen, that name has been
shifted from the spine-bearing thistle to a totally
different plant or growth.

( To be continued.')

THE TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN GREAT. BRITAIN, EUROPE,
AMERICA, AND THE EAST.

By George Walter Niven.

THERE are at present twenty-six Submarine
Cable Companies, the combined capital of
which is about forty million pounds sterling. Their
revenue, including subsidies, amounts to 3,204,060/. ;
their reserves and sinking funds to 3,610,000/. ; and
their dividends are from one to 145 per cent. The
receipts from the Atlantic cables alone amount to
about 800,000/. annually.

The number of cables laid down throughout the
world is 1045, of which 798 belong to governments,
and 247 lo private companies. The total length of
those cables is 120,070 nautical miles, of which
107,546 are owned by private telegraph companies,
nearly all British; the remainder, or 12,524 miles
are owned by governments.

The largest telegraphic organisation in the world
is that of the Eastern Telegraphic Company with
seventy cables of a total length of 21,859 nautical
miles. The second largest, is the Eastern Extension,
Australasia and China Telegraph Company, with
twenty-two cables of a total length of 12,958 nautical
miles. The Eastern Company work all the cables on
the way to Bombay, and the Eastern Extension
Company from Madras eastwards. The cables
landing in Japan, however, are owned by a Danish
Company, the Great Northern. The English station

12

HA RD WICKE ' S S CIENCE- G O SSIP.

of the Eastern Company is at Porthcurno, Cornwall,
and througli it passes most of the messages for
Spain, Portugal, Egypt, India, China, Japan, and
Australia.

three cables around our shores of a total length of
1489 miles. If we include India and the Colonies,
the British Empire owns altogether two hundred and
sixteen cables of a total length of 381 1 miles.

Fig. 3. — Map showing Cables from Great Britain to America and ihe Continent. 1-18, private companies; 19-31, Government

Cables ; 32, proposed Cable.

The third largest cable company is the Anglo-
American Telegraph Company, with thirteen cables
of a total length of 10,196 miles.

The British Government has one hundred and

The longest Government cable in British waters, is
that from Sinclair Bay, Wick, to Sandwick Bay,
Shetland, of the length of 122 miles, and laid in
1885. The shortest being four cables across the

HARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

13

Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, at the latter place,
and each less than 300 feet in length.

Of Government cables the greatest number is
owned by Norway with two hundred and thirty-
six, averaging however less than a mile each in
length.

eighty-nine cables; and Germany third with 1579
miles, and forty-three cables.

Britain being fourth with ninety miles less.

The oldest cable still in use is the one that was
first laid, that namely from Dover to Calais. It
dates from 185 1.

SCALE

Fig. 4. — Map showing the Main Cables from Europe, and their connections with Canada and the United States. References to
places— A, Heart's Content ; B, Placentia ; C, St. Pierre Miquelon ; D, North Sydney, Cape Breton Island ; E, Louisbourg :
F, Canso, Nova Scotia; G, Halifax; H. Bird Rock; I, Madeline Isles; J, Anticosti ; K, Charlotte Town, Prince Edwards
Isle ; LLL, Banks of Newfoundland.

The greatest mileage is owned by the Government
of France with 3269 miles of the total length of fifty-
one cables.

The next being British India with 1714 miles, and

The two next oldest cables in use being those
respectively from Ramsgate to Ostend ; and St.
Petersburg to Cronstadt, and both laid down in

1853.

14

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Several unsuccessful attempts were made to connect
England and Ireland by means of a cable between
Holyhead and Howth ; but communication between
the two countries was finally effected in 1853, when
a cable was successfully laid between Portpatrick
and Donaghadee (31).

As showing one of the dangers to which cables
laid in comparatively shallow waters are exposed, we
may relate the curious accident that befell the
Portpatrick cable in 1873. During a severe storm in
that year the Port Glasgow ship "Marseilles"
capsized in the vicinity of Portpatrick, the anchor
fell out and caught on to the telegraph cable, which,
however, gave way. The ship was afterwards
captured and towed into Rothesay Bay, in an
inverted position, by a Greenock tug, when part of
the cable was found entangled about the anchor.

The smallest private companies are the Indo-
European Telegraph Company, with two cables in
the Crimea of a total length of fourteen and a half
miles ; and the River Plate Telegraph Company with
one cable from Monte Video to Buenos Ayres, thirty-
two miles long.

The smallest Government telegraph organisation is
that of New Caledonia with its one solitary cable one
mile long.

We will now proceed to give a few particulars
regarding the companies having cables from Europe
to America.

The most important company is the Anglo-
American Telegraph Company, whose history is
inseparably connected with that of the trials and
struggles of the pioneers of cable laying.

Its history begins in 1S51 when Tebets, an
American, and Gisborne, an English engineer, formed
the Electric Telegraph Company of Newfoundland,
and laid down twelve miles of cable between Cape
Breton and Nova Scotia. This company was
shortly afterwards dissolved, and its property trans-
ferred to the Telegraphic Company of New York,
Newfoundland and London, founded by Cyrus W.
Field, and who in 1854 obtained an extension of the
monopoly from the Government to lay cables.

A cable, eighty-five miles long, was laid between
Cape Breton and Newfoundland (22).

Field then came to England and floated an English
company which amalgamated with the American
one under the title of the Atlantic Telegraph Com-
pany.

The story of the laying of the Atlantic Cables of
1857 and 1865, their successes and failures has often
been told, so we need not go into any details. It
may be noted, however, that communication was first
established between Valentia and Newfoundland on
',th August 1858, but the cable ceased to transmit
signals on ist September following. During that
period, ninety-seven messages had been sent from
Valentia, and two hundred and sixty-nine from
Newfoundland. At the present time, the ten

Atlantic Cables now convey about ten thousand'
messages daily between the two continents. The
losses attending the laying of the 1865 Cable resulted
in the financial ruin of the Atlantic Company, and
its amalgamation with a new company. The Anglo-
American. In 1866 the Great Eastern successfully
laid the first cable for the new company, and with
the assistance of other vessels succeeded in picking,
up the broken end of the 1865 cable and completing
its connection with Newfoundland.

The three cables of this company presently in use
and connecting Valentia in Ireland with Heart's
Content in Newfoundland, were laid in 1873, 1874,
and 1880; and (i) are respectively 1886, 1846, and
1890 nautical miles in 'length. This company also
owns the longest cable in the wor]d, that, namely
from Brest in France to St. Pierre Miquelon, one of
a small group of islands off the south coast of
Newfoundland, and which, strange to say, still'
belongs to France (6).

The length of this cable is 2685 nautical miles, or
3092 statute miles. It was laid in 1869. There are
seven cables of a total length of 1773 miles,,
connecting Heart's Content, Placentia Bay and St.
Pierre, with North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and
Duxbury near Boston, belonging to the American
Company. Communication is maintained with
Germany and the rest of the continent by means of a
cable from Valentia to Emden 846 miles long (7),
and a cable from Brest to Salcombe, Devon, connects
the St. Pierre and Brest cable with the London oflice
of the company (10).*

The station of the Direct United States Cable
Company is situated at Ballinskelligs Bay, Ireland
(2). Its cable was laid in 1874-5, and is 2565 miles
in length. The terminal point on the other side of
the Atlantic is at Halifax, Nova Scotia, from whence
the cable is continued to Rye Beach, New Hamp-
shire a distance of 536 miles and thence by a land
line of 500 miles to New York (17).

The Commercial Cable Company's station in
Ireland is at Waterville, a short distance from
Ballinskelligs (3). It owns two cables laid in 1885 ;
the northern cable being 2350, and the southern 2388
miles long. They terminate in America at Canso,
Nova Scotia. From Canso a cable is laid to
Rockfort, about thirty miles south of Boston, Mass. ;
a distance of 518 miles (16), and another is laid to
New York 840 miles in length (15). This company
has direct communication with the Continent by
means of a cable from Waterville to Havre of 510
miles (9), and with England by a cable to Weston-
super-Mare, near Bristol, of 328 miles (8).

* Cables not fully described in the text, Map E. Eight
cables at the Anglo-American Company ; 7, Heart's Content to
Placentia, two cablei ; 8, Placentia to St. Pierre ; 9, St. Pierre
to North Sydney ; 10, Placentia to North Sydney, two cables ;
II, St. Pierre to Duxbury; 18, Charlotte's Town to Nova
Scotia ; ig. Government Cable, North Sydney to Bird Rock,
Madeline Isles, and Anticosti ; 21, Halifax and Bermuda
Cable Company's proposed cable to Bermuda.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

15

The Western Union Telegraph Company (the
lessees of the lines of the American Telegraph and
Cable Comijany) has two cables from Sennen Cove,
Land's End, to Canso, Nova Scotia (4). The cable
of 1S81 is 2531, and that of 1882 is 2576 miles in
Jength. Two cables were laid in November 1S89
between Canso and New York (14).

The Compagnie Fi-ancaise du Telegraphe de Paris
a New York, has a cable from Brest to St. Pierre
^Miquelon, of 2242 miles in length (5), from thence a
cable is laid to Louisbourg, Cape Breton (12), and
another to Cape Cod (13). It has also a cable from
Brest to Porcella Cove, Cornwall (11).

Those ten cables owned by the six companies
named, of the total mileage of 22,959, i^ot counting
connections, represent the entire direct communica-
tion between the continents of Europe and North
America.

A new company, not included in the preceding
statistics, proposes to lay a cable from Westport,
Ireland, to some point in the Straits of Belle Isle on
the Labrador coast (Map A 32, Map B 20).

The station of the Eastern Telegraph Company is
at Porthcurno Cove, Penzance, from whence it has
two cables to Lisbon, one laid in iSSo, 850 miles
dong, the other laid in 1887, 892 miles long (12), and
one cable to Vigo, Spain, laid in 1873, 622 miles
long (13). From Lisbon the cable is continued to
^Gibraltar and the East, whither we need not follow
it, our intention being to confine ourselves entirely to
a brief account of those cables communicating
'directly with Europe and America. As already
stated, this company has altogether seventy cables of
a total length of nearly twenty-two thousand miles.

The Direct Spanish Telegraph Company has a
cable, laid in 1884. from Kennach Cove, Cornwall,
to Bilbao, Spain, 486 miles in length (14).

Coming now to shorter cables connecting Britain
with the Continent, we have those of the Great
Northern Telegraph Company, namely, Peterhead to
Ekersund, Norway, 267 miles (15), Newbiggin,
near Newcastle, to Arendal, Norway, 424 miles, and
thence to Marstrand, Sweden, 98 miles.

Two cables from the same place in England to
Denmark (Hirstals and Sondervig) of 420 and 337
miles respectively (17 and 18).

The Great Northern Company has altogether
twenty-two cables, of a total length of 6110 miles.
The line from Newcastle is worked direct to Nylstud,
in Russia — a distance of S90 miles — by means of a
*' Relay" or "Repeater," at Gothenburg. The
Relay is the apparatus at which the Newcastle
•current terminates, but in ending there it itself starts
a fresh current on to Russia.

The other Continental connections belong to the
Governmment, and are as follows : two cables to
Germany, Lowestoft to Norderney, 232 miles, and to
Emden, 226 miles (19 and 20).

Two cables to Holland : Lowestoft to Zandvoort,

laid in 1858 (21), and from Benacre, Kessingland, to
Zandvoort (22).

Two cables to Belgium : Ramsgate to Ostend (23),
and Dover to Furness (24).

Four cables to France : Dover to Calais, laid in
1S51 (25), and to Boulogne (26), laid in 1859;
Beachy Head to Dieppe (27), and to Havre (28).

Thei^e is a cable from the Dorset coast to Alderney
and Guernsey, and from the Devon coast to
Guernsey, Jersey, and Coutances, France (29 and

30)-

A word now as to the instruments used for the
transmission of messages. Those for cables are of
two kinds, the Mirror Galvanometer, and the Syphon
Recorder, both the product of Sir Wm. Thompson's
great inventive genius.

When the Calais-Dover and other short cables
were first worked, it was found that the ordinary
needle instrument in use on land-lines was not
sufticiently sensitive to be affected trustworthily by
the ordinary current it was possible to send tlirough
a cable. Either the current must be increased in
strength, or the instrument used must be more
sensitive. The latter alternative was chosen, and the
Mirror-Galvanometer was the result. The principle
on which this instrument works may be briefly
described thus : the transmitted current of electricity
causes the deflection of a small magnet, to which is
attached a mirror about the three-eighths of an inch
in diameter, a beam of light is reflected from a
properly-arranged lamp, by the mirror, on to a paper
scale. The dots and dashes of the Morse code are
indicated by the motions of the spot of light to
the right and left respectively , of the centre of the
scale.

Tlie Mirror-Galvanometer is now almost entirely
superseded by the Syphon-Recorder. This is a some-
what complicated apparatus, with the details of which
we need not trouble our readers. Suffice it for us to
explain that a suspended coil is made to communicate
its motions, by means of fine silk fibres, to a very fine
glass syphon, one end of which dips into an insulated
metallic vessel containing ink, while the other extremity
rests, when no current is passing, just over the centre
of a paper ribbon. When the instrument is in use
the ink is driven out of the syphon in small drops l)y
means of an electrical arrangement, and the ribbon
underneath is at the same time caused to pass under-
neath its point by means of clockwork. If a current
be now sent through the line, the syplion will move
above or below the central line thus giving a
permanent record of the message, which the mirror-
instrument does not. The waves written by the
syphon above the central line corresponding to the
dots of the Morse Code, and the waves underneath
corresponding to the dashes.

The cost of the transmission of a cablegram varies
from one shilling per word, the rate to New York and
east of the Mississippi, to ten shillings and sevenpence

i6

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

per word, the rate to New Zealand. In order to
minimise that cost as much as possible, the use of
codes, whereby one word is made to do duty for a
lengthy phrase, is much resorted to. Of course, those
code messages form a series of words having no
apparent relation to each other, but occasionally
queer sentences result from the chance grouping of
code words. Thus a certain tea firm was once
astonished to receive from its agent abroad the
startling code message — "Unboiled babies de-
tested" !

Suppose we now follow the adventures of a few
cablegrams in their travels over the world.

A message to India from London by the cable
route requires to be transmitted eight times at the
following places : — Porthcurno (Cornwall), Lisbon,
Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Suez, Aden, Bombay.

A message to Australia has thirteen stoppages ;
the route taken beyond Bombay being via Madras,
Penang, Singapore, Banjoewangie and Port Darwin
(North Australia) ; or from Banjoewangie to Roebuck
Bay (Western Australia).

To India by the Indo-European land lines,
messages go through Emden, Warsaw, Odessa,
Kertch, Tiflis, Teheran, Bushire (Persian Gulf), Jask
and Kurrachee, but only stop twice between London
and Teheran — namely, at Emden and Odessa.

Messages from London to New York are trans-
mitted only twice — at the Irish or Cornwall stations,
and at the stations in Canada. Owing to the great
competition for the American traffic the service
between London, Liverpool, and Glasgow and New
York is said to be much superior to that between any
two towns in Britain. The cables are extensively
used by stockbrokers, and it is a common occurrence
for one to send a message and receive a reply within
five minutes.

During breakages in cables messages have some-
times to take very circuitous routes. For instance,
during the two days, three years ago, that a
tremendous storm committed such havoc amongst
the telegraph wires around London, cutting ofif all
communication with the lines connected with the
Channel cables at Dover, Lowestoft, &c., it was
of common occurrence for London merchants to
communicate with Paris through New York. The
cablegram leaving London going north to Holyhead
and Ireland, across the Atlantic to New York
and back via St. Pierre to Brest and thence on
to Paris, a total distance of about seven thousand
miles.

Two years ago, when the great blizzard cut off all
communication between New York and Boston,
messages were accepted in New York, sent to this
country, and thence back to Boston.'

Some time ago the cables between Madeira and
St. Vincent were out of order, cutting off communi-
cation by the direct route to Brazil, and a message to
reach Rio Janeiro had to pass through Ireland,

Canada, United States, to Galveston, thence to
Vera Cruz, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador,
Peru, Chili, ; from Valparaiso across the Andes,
through the Argentine Republic to Buenos Ayres,
and thence by East Coast cables to Rio Janeiro, the
message having traversed a distance of about twelve
thousand miles and having passed through twenty-
four cables and some very long land lines, instead of
passing, had it been possible to have sent it by|the
direct route, over one short land line and six cables,
in all under six thousand miles.

Perhaps some of our readers may remember having
read in the newspapers of the result of last year's
Derby having been sent from Epsom to New York
in fifteen seconds, and may be interested to know
how it was done. A wire was laid from near the
winning-post on the racecourse to the cable
company's office in London, and an operator was at
the instrument ready to signal the two or three
letters previously arranged upon for each horse
immediately the winner had passed the post. When
the race begun, the cable company suspended work
on all the lines from London to New York and kept
operators at the Irish and Nova Scotian Stations
ready to transmit the letters representing the winning
horse immediately, and without having the message
written out in the usual way. When the race was
finished, the operator at Epsom at once sent the
letters representing the winner, and before he had
finished the third letter, the operator in London had
started the first one to Ireland. The clerk in
Ireland immediately on hearing the first signal from
London passed it on to Nova Scotia, from whence it
was again passed on to New York. The result
being that the name of the winner was actually
known in New York before the horses had pulled up
after passing the judge. It seems almost incredible
that such information could be transmitted such a
great distance in fifteen seconds, but when we get
behind the scenes and see exactly how it is
accomplished, and see how the labour and time of
signalling can be economised, we can easily realise
the fact.

The humours of telegraphic mistakes have often
been described ; we will conclude by giving only
one example. A St. Louis merchant had gone to
New York on business, and while there received a
telegram from the family doctor, which ran — " Your
wife has had a child, if we can keep her from having
another to-night, all will be well." As the little
stranger had not been expected, further enquiry was
made and elicited the fact that his wife had simply
had a "chill"! This important difference having
been caused simply by the omission of a single dot.

h i
h i

1 = chill
d = child

HARD WICK:e ' S S CIENCE - G 0 SSI P.

17

DUCKING : A LINCOLNSHIRE SKETCH.
By Gregory O. Benoni.

THE season for wild-fowling has come round
again with the fall of the leaf, and the chilly
nights and frosty mornings of early winter ; and, if
the weather should continue favourable, thousands of
birds will be killed or taken by the decoy-men and
long-shore gunners ; to say nothing of those shot by
sportsmen on the brooks and ponds of the midlands.
So a word about " ducking," or the taking of water-
fowl by strategy, may not be out of place ; especially
as it is one of the oldest English sports.

Why should we not say " ducking " when speaking
or writing of the pastime we are about to describe,
as the men engaged in the business do ? We use
"shooting" and "hunting" with confidence, and
ducking is as well-born an English word as either,
and quite as old apparently. In the Manor-Rolls of
Scotter, a village in Lincolnshire — formerly the
centre of a district productive of many wild-fowl —
we find the following entry : " No man of the
inhabitantes of Scoter or Scawthorpe shall fishe nor
goe a ducking within the Lordes severall watters —
1578." Scotter was evidently innocent, very
innocent, of a school board in the palmy days of the
Manor Courts, whatever it may be now. But
leaving the interesting relics of a bygone England
to entrust the defence of their quaint spelling to
antiquarian pens, we will take a stroll some miles to
the north-east of the " severall watters " of Scaw-
thorpe, and "goe a ducking" with any lover of
country life who cares to accompany us.

It was a mild bright January morning, with a
gentle north-west wind and rising barometer, when a
party of us set out to visit the decoy — where the best-
flavoured teal in England are lured to their doom — ■
rejoicing on our way over the cessation of the black
north-easter, which had alternately pelted us with
rain and blinded us with snow for a fortnight past.
All cold we numbered only four, "the squire," two
naturalists, and a Londoner, who had deserted
civilised existence in Babylon for a time, for the
purpose of studying the untamed agriculturist in his
native wilds. The state of the weather of late had
been most detrimental to all our attempts at field or
cover sport, but had signally favoured the decoy-man
by driving flocks of hungry fowl to take refuge in his
pond. A severe and prolonged frost would not have
brought him so lucky a windfall ; the birds would
have been more hungry and eager if possible, but
there would have been fewer of them inland, and
the work of capturing them would have been in-
finitely more tedious. So long as the cold keeps
away the decoy man can " sleep like a Christian " ;
but let " Frosty Jack " only nip his sheltered low-
lying waters, and night becomes turned into day at
once, with more than the day's toil. For at any
cost of money and labour large open spaces must be

preserved in the pond, and "the pipes" kept free
from ice. The birds need open water to rest and
sport on, and if they cannot find it in the decoy
would soon fly away to the still unfrozen brooks and
rivers, or to the seashore. So, when the "decoy
rises " on a frosty evening, and the last bird has
departed to the feeding grounds, the master ducker
and an assistant begin the work of clearing the ice
away by moon or lamplight, as the case may be,
and toil on till the grey of dawn warns them to be
gone ere the return of the feathered multitude.

Fortified with a substantial breakfast we set off on
foot for the decoy-farm, whiling away the time as we
went by combating the squire's assertion that the
barometer was the true divinity of his family, and
that the adoration of the rain-god was as common in
England as in Africa, with the single difference that
he is regarded as a beneficent being in the sunny
south, and as a mischievous marplot in our more
northern regions. Our way led us along a dirty
footpath, by the side of a muddy road, where ash
and chestnut-leaves still lay in sheltered spots,
bright and fresh as if they had only been shorn by
the frost of the night before. The moss-grown
trunks of the hedgerow trees glistened with
moisture, and looked uninviting enough, yet their
dank branches formed the happy hunting-ground of
numbers of blue-tits, and their long-tailed cousins,
who called merrily to one another as they searched
the branches for insects. Presently we reached a
little hamlet standing on the brow of the slope which
forms the eastern boundary of the Trent valley, and
turning off to the right, we tramped across turnip and
stubble fields abounding in birds, which had collected
on the drier sand and loam during the stormy
weather, in preference to the heavy clay of the
higher lands. Skirting the side of a plantation ot
Scotch fir and spruce, where the sunshine had brought
out the squirrels to busy themselves with the fir-
cones, we walked down a straight road, bounded on
each side by a wide ditch, or " dyke," as the natives
call it, till we reached our destination on the wide-
spreading river flat.

The decoy-house was formerly the dwelling of the
family who owned the surrounding farms ; but the
place came under the hammer when the race died
out in the male line, and fell into the hands of a
land-jobber, who cut down the miniature forest
planted to protect the decoy from disturbance,
leaving only a fringe of trees of old growth to shield
the pond until a fresh cover of fast-growing young
ones should spring up to surround it. Finally the
home-farm passed into the hands of the head game-
keeper and master ducker of the late proprietor, now
I am sorry to say — for the sake of the duck-lore he
possessed— gathered to his fathers at a very ripe old
age indeed. On knocking at the door and inquiring
whether the master was in, we learned that he was
away from the house ; but, before disappointment

iS

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

could prey on our hearts, ihe old man's once buxom
dame put her head out of an upper window to survey
■lis, in that peculiar matter-of-fact, what-do-you-vvant-
liere kind of way which defies description ; and,
•catching a sight of our host, set our minds at rest
with a " Morning to you, squire. He's in th' 'coy,
I'll shout for th' lad, an' he'll ta' ye to him. Mind
you're quiet now agoin' ! "

A guide having appeared in answer to a full-
lunged cry from the mistress of the place — no wonder
the ducks needed a copse to dull the clamour of the
ciuter world — we passed through the neglected
pleasure-grounds where signs of former care lay on
every side, till we were brought to a standstill in an
open alley ; while the boy who conducted us went in
search of his grandfather.

Our halting-place was a pretty nook from which
you could catch a glimpse of the house at one end
of the path, and of two or three stately Scotch firs
overhanging the decoy at the other. A stone vase,
half grown over with ivy, stood in the centre of the
Slade, and formed a trysting place for the rabbits all
ihe afternoon and evening, for the bunnies knew by
-.some process of inductive reasoning that they were
in sanctuary here, as no gun can be fired near the
decoy. The lower step of the vase, which rose
about an inch above the surrounding turf, bore
witness to the frequent visits of the thrushes, for it
was covered with broken snail-shells. In the early
morning the birds come from near and far with the
land-snails they have found, and beat them ruthles%
to death on the stone. It is not everywhere that
they can find such a convenient anvil, in this stretch
of low-lying country ; where the surface-soil is
usually warp, peat, or sand free from pebbles ; so
the quiet glade is the theatre of many a molluscan
tragedy.

{To be continued.)

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

yj MERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR
■jTI SPINXING-WORK, by Dr. Henry C.
JMcCook (Philadelphia : published by the Author),
vol. ii. This perfectly delightful, beautifully illus-
trated, well-written monograph on the natural
liistory of the orb-weaving spiders of the United
States, more especially with regard to their industry
and habits, is now complete. It is a work of
marvellous and patient single-handed industry, the
result of many years' observation. We have already
.spoken, of the first vol. ; it only remains to say the
second is as good, if not better, were the latter
possible. Indeed, the author declares it is just
possible the second vol. will be more interesting both
to the scientific and the general public than the first.
It takes up the life-history of spiders, and follows
them literally from birth to death. Moreover it
deals with fossil spiders and ancestral araneads. Dr.

McCook in this highly readable volume also treats
upon the courting and mating of spiders; their
maternal skill and devotion ; their means of com-
munion with their environment ; their gossamer
voyaging through the air and traps in the ground ;
their friends and foes ; their mimicries and strange
disguises. The volume runs to nearly 500 pages, and
is illustrated by about four hundred cuts, in addition
to five large and artistically coloured plates.

Eighth Annual Report of the United States Geological
Survey, 2 vols, by J. W. Powell, Director (Washing-
ton: Government Printing 'Office). These ever-
welcome vols, to English and other geologists are
got up and distributed with an artistic taste and
liberality our English Survey (thanks to the niggardly
Philistinism of our British Government) knows
nothing of. The volumes include not only the clear
and lengthy, well-digested " Report of the Director,"
reviewing all the stratigraphical, mineralogical, and
palceontological work done by the able and earnest
l)and of geologists who are proud to serve under such
a chief, but also the administrative reports of the heads
of the divisions of survey. Then follow the individual
reports of the geologists and mineralogists entrusted
with special work. These are illustrated with almost
artistic prodigality, but the latter is intensely utili-
tarian, for the coloured maps, diagrams, and scenic
woodcut illustrations bring vividly before the mind
the points which the field workers wi^;h attention to
be drawn to.

Monographs of the U. S. Geological Survey, vols.
XV. (2 parts) and xvi. (Washington : Government
Printing Ofiice). These vols, contain records ol
special work by special scientific workers. Thus, w'e
have one on " The Potomac or Younger Mesozoic
Flora," by W. M. Fontaine, with detailed descrip-
tions of the fossil plants found therein (abundantly
illustrated). Indeed, no fewer than 180 plates occupy
a volume alone, in order to illustrate the first part of
vol. XV. Volume the sixteenth is an exhaustive
monograph, or special report, by J. G. Newberry, on
"The Palaeozoic Fishes of North America," and is
illustrated by fifty-three splendidly lithographed
plates.

Natural History of the Animal Kingdom, by W. F.
Kirby (London : S. P. C. K.), This is a gorgeously
got-up volume Ijoth internally and externally,
crowded with too highly coloured natural history
objects, of which there are about 850 displayed. The
work (a (|uarto vol.) is divided into three parts —
mammalia, birds, and one (the third part) capaciously
including, like Noali's ark, reptiles, amphibia, fishes,
insects, worms, molluscs, zoophytes, &c. Mr. Kirby
has very ably and accurately written up to these too-
Germanly coloured plates, which have evidently been
used from Professor Von Schubert's book. It is,
however, a capital natural history picture book.

Of the next set of prettily got-up, well-printed, and
well-written little volumes, it is hardly possible to

HARD WICKE ' S S CIENCE- G O SSI P.

19

speak too hit^hly. Each is written by the man best
capable of knowing what he is talking about on the
subject ; and yet the price of these excellent manuals
is remarkably low. The S. P. C. K. is to be con-
gratulated on taking up departments of knowledge
which are useful and therefore Christian. We allude
to Soap- Bubbles, by Prof. C. V. Boys ; Spinning-
Tops, by Prof. J. Perry ; and The Birth and Growth
of Worlds, by Prof. A. H. Green.

The Aictobiography of the Earth, by the Rev. H.
W. Hutchinson (London: Edward Stanford), is a
delightfully written and thoroughly accurate popular
work on geology, well-calculated to engage the
interest of readers in the fascinating study of the Stony
Science.

Frcsh-Watcr Aqxiaria, by the Rev. Gregory C.
Bateman (London: L. Upcott Gill). A well-written
description of these domestic water-gardens and
vivaria. Also well-illustrated, although most of the
illustrations are very familiar to the editor. The
author has made the fullest use of all who have
written before on this interesting subject, and has
therefore produced a very useful little manual.

Poems, by Nina Layard (London : Longmans).
The authoress of this daintily got-up volume is well
known to the readers of the Science-Gossip by her
able papers, and replies to the comments thereon,
concerning such evolutionary subjects as "Vestiges,"
&c. Poems, as a rule, lie outside our line of book
notices ; but it is a genuine pleasure to recommend
this little book for its graceful and thoughtful verses.
Many of them have already appeared in the chief
magazines of the day. But we think Miss Layard
has done right in collecting them together in this
pretty form. They are too good to pass away with
the monthly ephemeral literature. They are full of
thoughtful and philosophical feeling expressed with
that delicate nna?tce which only an educated woman
possesses. Every reader of Science-Gossip should
procure or read these poems.

The Philosophy of Clothing, by W. Mattieu "Williams
(London : Thos. Laurie). There are few writers on
economic or general science better known than Mr.
Mattieu Williams. His monthly contributions to our
own columns convinced us of this. Consequently,
whatever he has to write or speak upon is bound to
be read and heard. In this well got-up little book
iSIr. Williams discourses like the practical philosopher
he has proved himself to be, and even illustrates his
remarks by the peculiar type in which his remarks
are set up. He treats upon " Our Natural Clothing "'
(an admirable chapter to read), "The Natural Re-
lations of Animal Heat," "The Protecting Power of
Different Clothing Materials," "The Transmission
of Heat through Clothing," "Adhesion of Air to
Clothing Materials," "Clothing as a Sanitary Puri-
fier," " Woollen Clothing " (Ulustrated by specimens
of the same), "The Sebaceous Follicles— Feather
Clothing," "Boots and Shoes," "Head Gear,"

"Women's Dress and Fashion," &c. From the
mere titles of these chapters our readers may guess
the large scope and amazing amount of practical
information conveyed in this little book.

Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited? By
W. Piatt Ball (London : Macmillan & Co.). This
well got-up little volume is one of the celebrated
"Nature Series." It deals clearly and forcibly with
Herbert Spencer's examples and arguments, as well
as those of Charles Darwin. The ground travelled
over by the author is far-reaching, and the subjects
treated upon numerous and varied.

An Illustrated Handbook of British Dragon-flies,
by the editor of the " Naturalist's Gazette " (London :
E. W. Allen ; Birmingham : The Naturalist Pub-
lishing Co.). This capital little handbook is just the
work which has long been wanted by students. The
author has devoted special attention for years to this
class of insects, and he now gives, in a cheap form,
the benefits of his knowledge and experience. We
cordially recommend the book.

Inorganic Chemistry, by J. Oakley Buttler (Lon-
don : Relfe Bros.). This is a handy and useful little
book on the chemistry of the non-metals. It covers
the ground required by the London Matriculation
Examination, as well as the Cambridge Local Exa-
mining Board, and the Science and Art Department.

Practical Inorganic Chemistry (elementary stage),
by E. J. Cox (London : Percival & Co.). Another
competitor for the much patronised " student " going
in for the Science and Art Department, &c., written
by a man who knows his work. It is, however,
a cheap, handy, and capital note-book, just small
enough to be useful (51 pages), and the limp cloth
cover makes it handy for the pocket.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Royal Institution. — The following are the
Lecture Arrangements before Easter : Professor
Dewar, Six Christmas Lectures to Juveniles, on Frost
and Fire ; Professor Victor Horsley, Nine Lectures
on the Structure and Functions of the Nervous
System (Part I. the Spinal Cord, and Ganglia) ; Mr.
Hall Caine, Three Lectures on The Little Manx
Nation ; Professor C. Hubert H. Parry, Three
Lectures on the Position of LuUi, Purcell, and
Scarlatti in the History of the Opera ; Professor C.
Meymott Tidy, Three Lectures on Modern Chemistry
in relation to Sanitation ; Mr. W. Martin Conway,
Three Lectures on Pre-Greek Schools of Art ; the
Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, Six Lectures on the
Forces of Cohesion. The Friday evening meetings
will begin on January 23rd, when a discourse will be
given by the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh on Some
Applications of Photography ; succeeding Discourses
will probably be given by the Right Hon. Lord
Justice Sir Edward Fry, Professor J. W. Judd,

20

HARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Professor A. Schuster, Dr. E. E, Klein, Mr. Percy
Fitzgerald, Dr. J. A. Fleming, Dr. Felix Semon,
Professor W. E. Ayrton, and other gentlemen.

We have received a reprint (Part 3) of a paper by
Dr. A. B. Griffiths, on his " Researches on Micro-
organisms." It is a bit of excellent and original work.

The first part of a most thoughtful and suggestive
paper appeared in the " American Naturalist " for
October on " The Evolution of Mind," by Professor
Cope.

The Third Part of M. Tempere's " Le Diatomiste "
fully keeps up its high character. The photographic
enlargements are a high work of art.

We recommend our geological and entomological
readers to study the paper in the December issue of
the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History" on
" The Fauna of Amber," by Herr Richard Klebs, of
Konigsberg.

We are pleased to see that a new edition (the
ihird) of Dr. E. Crookshank's " Manual of Bacteri-
ology," revised throughout, has just been issued.

At length the great Darwinian, Dr. A. R. Wallace,
has received recognition at the hands of our Royal
Society. He has obtained the first Darwinian gold
medal. But why is he not an F.R.S. ?

Dr. Henry Woodward figures and describes in
the December number of " The Geological Magazine "
a new Fossil British Isopod, discovered by Mr.
Thomas Jesson in the great Oolite of Northampton-
shire.

The number of known small planets has now
reached three hundred. Of these, thirteen were
discovered last year. The first was discovered at the
beginning of the century.

We have received from Mr. John Dennant, F.G.S.,
an enthusiastic Victorian Geologist, a reprint of his
valuable paper entitled " Observations on the
Tertiary and post-Tertiary Geology of South- Western
Victoria."

Mr. Montagu Brown has published, in the
"Transactions of the Leicester Literary and Philo-
sophical Society," an important paper on a " Revision
of a Genus of Fossil Fishes, Dapedius."

We beg to acknowledge the reprint of an important
paper by Dr. C. A. Oliver, Ophthalmic-surgeon to
St. Agnes's Hospital, Philadelphia, on " An Analysis
of the Motor Symptoms and Conditions of the Ocular
Apparatus as observed in Imbecility, Epilepsy, and
the second stage of General Paralysis of the Insane."

Mr. C. J. Gilbert's pamphlet on "The Geology
of Sutton-Coldfield" is an important addition to the
geology of the Midland Counties. Mr. Gilbert has
studied the locality, and done the work well.

"Electricity in Daily Life," by F. B. Lea, is
a very cheap (twopence) pamphlet published by
E. W. Allen, to which we are pleased to draw
attention.

The sixth and seventh parts of Mr. R. L. Wallace's
work on "British Cage Birds" are well up to the
high standard gained by the preceding numbers.

Book-Buyers will find Mr. Edward Stanford's
recently issued "Catalogue of Maps, Atlases, and
Books " exceedingly useful.

"The Naturalist's Annual and Directory
for 1891 " is a happy thought. The present first
beginning, however, is capable of considerable
extension.

We have received a reprint of Mr. G. W. Bulman's
important paper on "A Coal-Seam in the Bernician
Series of Northumberland, and its Bearing on the
Theory of the Formation of Coal." Mr. Bulman,
as our readers know, is a thoughtful and original
writer.

We gather that a series of pamphlets on "Every-
day Science " is being issued from Curtis and
Beamish, of Coventry. The first to hand is one on
" The Philosophy of Cycling," by W. R. FuUeyrove.

The Rev J. E, Kelsall's carefully-annotated list of
the birds of Hampshire and Isle of Wight has been
reprinted, price one shilling (Southampton : the
" Independent " office).

Dr. G. J. Hinde has kindly forwarded a reprint of
his paper from the " Annals and Magazines of
Natural History," on " Radiolaria from the Lower
Palaeozoic Rocks of the South of Scotland." We
have few more ardent palseontological workers than
Dr. Hinde.

One of our well-known correspondents, the Rev.
H. W. Lett, sends us a reprint of his painstaking and
lengthy report (about 60 pp.) on "The Mosses,
Hepatics, and Lichens of the Mourne Mountain
District." It originally appeared in the ' ' Proceedings
of the Royal Irish Academy."

Messrs. George Philip & Son, 32 Fleet Street,
are exhibiting a very large and complete Tellurium,
constructed for lecture-purposes, which illustrates the
complex motions of the earth and moon. It shows
the actual position of the earth in space for any given
time of the year.

The "Transactions of the Wagner Free Institute
of Science of Philadelphia " contains a splendidly-
illustrated monograph, by W. H. Dall (Palaeontologist
to the U.S. Geological Survey) entitled " Contri-
butions to the Tertiary Fauna of Florida, with
Especial Reference to the Silex-Beds of Tampa, and
tlie Pliocene-Beds of the Caloosahahatcie River."

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

21

MICROSCOPY.

The Vertical Camera. — I have very recently
received a vertical camera from one of the leading
London firms, and am working myself towards a
solution of the difficulties it presents to me. I find
that when the image is projected on paper laid on
the table in front of the microscope there is consider-
able distortion. The circular valve of a diatom
(under a one-sixth objective) is projected as an ellipse
(Fig. 5a). To remedy this, I have made a small
sloping drawing-desk of deal wood, the upper surface
of which is 10 inches square, and is fixed at an angle
of 45°. The image of the same diatom projected on

Fig s-

Fig. 6.

the inclined surface of the slope is, as it should be, a
circle. Fig. 63. It is quite possible that this is the usual
way in which the distortion I refer to is rectified ;
but as none of the illustrated descriptive catalogues
and journals to which I have referred suggest the use
of a slope, this little note may be useful to those who,
like myself, have to think matters out for themselves.
Will any of your readers who work with vertical
cameras give a few "tips" in your columns on the
best way of using this appliance ?— W. J. Simmons^
Calaitta.

ZOOLOGY.

The Great Grey Shrike.— I find there are no
authentic instances of this bird breeding in this
countr)'. The last week in May, 1 889, a great grey
shrike was given to me that was shot at Brackley.
The bird had all the appearance of being a brooding-
bird, and the fact of it being found so late in the
season almost proves that it does occasionally breed
in this countrj'. — H. Blaby.

Shells in Banffshire.— I append a short list
of shells found during two rambles last October, at
Aberlour, Banffshire. This granite country yields
few shells, many only being found near walls and
rubbish heaps, where more mortar has been used or

deposited. I was unable to make a thorough search
for fresh-water specimens. Unio 7nargantifcr, Ano-
donta cynaa, from the river Spey ; Limnaa peregra,
frequent ; Vitrhia pellucida, very common ; Zonitcs
paiinis, var. margaritacea, scarce ; Z. fulvus, mode-
rately common ; Z. nitidiis, common ; Helix lamellata,
one only ; H. horUnsis, scarce ; H. nemoralis, mode-
rately common; Clausilia riigosa, scarce. These
seem to approach the var. titmidula, being smaller
and more ventricose. Vertigo edentata, more common
than any of the above.— y. Chas. Smith, Penrith.

Disease in Rook.— On Sunday Nov. i6th I
found a rook in a ditch near the Vicarage. When-
ever it tried to walk it rolled over and over. I
brought it home and put it in a room till after morning-
service was over ; then I took it some juicy beef cut
in small pieces. Whenever it attempted to swallow
it could only throw its head forward, and of course
threw the meat out of its bill. I noticed that it could
walk backward quite well, but whenever it tried to
walk any other way it rolled over. I gave it over to
a bird-stuffer next day, Nov. 17th, and he found that
although dead less than twenty-four hours— for I
wrung its neck — the liver was completely rotten.
There were no marks of any wound or injury. The
feathers were smooth and glossy, but the bird was
very light in weight.— .ff. Ashington Bullen.

"Proceedings," etc., of Colonial and Pro-
vincial Societies : —

The best token we could adduce of the scientific
research and love thereof in our Australian colonies-
will be best demonstrated by the following "Con-
tents" of the last issued "Journal of the Royal
Society of New South Wales ":—" List of the
Marine and Fresh-water Invertebrate Fauna of Port
Jackson and the Neighbourhood," by Thos. White-
legge; "The Analysis of the Prickly Pear," by
W. H. Hamlet; "Notes on New South Wales
Minerals," by C. H. Mingaye ; " Notes on Goulbourn
Lime," by E. C. Manfred; " The Australian Abo-
rigines," by the Rev. John Mathew ; " Aids to
Sanitation in Unsewered Districts," by J. A. Thomp-
son ; " Well and River Waters of New South Wales,"
by W. A. Dixon; "The Aborigines of Australia,"
by Ed. Stephens ; "New South Wales as a Health
Resort in Phthisis Pulmonalis," by Dr. B. J. New-
march ; besides Reports of lectures, &c.

The "Proceedings" of the Bristol Naturalists"
Society are always full of good matter. The last
part contains the following important papers among
others : — " The Geology of Tytherington and Groves-
end," by Prof. C. L. Morgan ; "Flora of the Bristol
Coal-Field," by J. W. White; "The Fungi of the
Bristol District," by C. Bucknell, Mus. Bac. ; " Talpa ;
or. Remarks on the Habits of the Mole," by C. J,
Trusted; "Mimicry among the Lepidoptera," by
G. C. Griffiths ; " Putrefactive Organisms," by Dr.

22

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Dallinger ; "Remarks on Sewerage Systems," by
A. P. J. Cotterell; "The Perceptions of Animals,"
by Prof, C. L. Morgan ; " Suggestions as to the
Causes of the Difference in Colour between the
Flowers and Foliage of • Tropical and Temperate
Regions," by Charles Jeeks, &c.

BOTANY.

Chlorophyll in Plants. — I have just seen in
Science-Gossip an article by J. Ballantyne on the
formation of chlorophyll in plants. As I had a
similar instance some time ago, I may mention it as
appearing to contradict the accepted theory on the
subject. I was cutting away some superfluous
branches in my melon pit, and found I had cut off
one on which was a partly grown fruit. I left it as
it was in the frame. It grew (no root) to about twice
its then size and ripened. No crack or hole in it to
admit the light. Flesh of usual flavour. All the
seeds in this fruit had germinated and showed full
green cotyledons of such colour as they would have
shown if growing in the ordinary way, and of about
the size that usually show from the seed case. Is not
the law laid down a little too absolutely by some of
our (more or less) scientific men in some of these
matters? Evidently here are instances in which
light has not been instrumental in producing the green
colour of vegetation, — Geo. C. Nerval!.

The Flora of Kent. — Can any reader of
Science-Gossip give me information respecting a
Flora for Kent, as all my inquiries hitherto have
failed in discovering the existence of any such work ?
It seems very singular that a county so botanically
rich as Kent should be so neglected. Does the London
Flora take in this district ? Also what is the price
and when was the last edition published? — JV. B.,
Pluvistead.

The Evolution of Poisons. — With reference
to the note in Science-Gossip for December on the
Evolution of Poisons, is it possible that they act in
the economy of the plant by being reserves of food
matter ? Since substances in the seed are absorbed
into the young plant, and as numbers of the poisons,
etc., are found in the seeds, then why should not
similar substance in the plant be reserves for it to use
during its growth? Again, the plant might absorb
from the soil more than it can use in its economy,
and these substances might be a means of getting rid
of the surplus. Either of these views would also
account for substances 'which are not poisons, and
therefore in that way cannot act as a defence to the
plant. The number of these compounds in the
vegetable kingdom must be enormous, and this fact
might be accounted for by different plants requiring
different amounts of elementary constituents, and
that each substance is suited to the economy of the
plant where it is found, Tlie fact that some of these

act as poisons to the higher animals would thus seem
to be incidental. — M. Farrant.

Euphorbia Cyparissias in Kent. — It was with
great pleasure I saw recorded the finding of this
plant by a visitor (?) to the neighbourhood. I fear,
however, that from the description of the locality,
one might search the " hillsides close to Dover" for
a long time, and then not find it. However, the
description is quite correct. The locality is known
to most, if not all, of those interested in botanical
matters hving in Dover. There are five or six good-
sized patches of it, if I remember right. They are
so conspicuous when in flower, that they may be seen
from the hills on the opposite side of the valley. I
had noticed that the botanical books give "woods"
as the habitat of this plant. I had also noticed that
in Switzerland I have found it anywhere but in
woods! Gremli, in his "Flora of Switzerland,"
gives as habitats, "gravelly places, road-sides, river
banks " — and in such places I have found it. I
wonder whether K. E. Styan knew, when he was
gathering the beautiful little Cyprus spurge, that he
was within a few yards of a host of rarities and much-
sought-after plants ? Sixteen or seventeen of our
orchids may be found in their season close by — O.
purpurea, O. ustulata, O. apifera, O. muscifera, H.
bifoUa and chlorantha, wei-e all in bloom when K, E.
Styan gathered the spurge ! It is gratifying to know
that a visitor may go into a strange place and find
something that the inhabitants know nothing of ; and
this should encourage all to keep their eyes open. I
know of three instances of strangers finding plants
unknown to the botanists of the neighbourhood. In
1883 a visitor found near Dover Habeiiaria viridis.
In 1888 another visitor found near Folkestone Orni-
thopus ebracteatus ; and in 1890 a friend staying for
his holidays in the neighbourhood of Dover found
two patches of Phyteuma m-biculare, and those X.\\o
patches half a mile apart 1 One thing to be learnt
from this I think is— the desirability of placing upon
record all "finds" that strike the finder as good or
exceptional, as K. E. Styan has done. One Saturday
in June of 1S90 I was walking from Sugar-loaf Hill
across the fields towards Park Farm, Folkestone,
when I was suddenly " brought to " by seeing on the
footpath two specimens of \\\^ Cyprus spurge l How
came they there has ever been a mystery to me ; they
were quite fresh. Does this note of K. E. Sty.in
explain it ?— ;K T. Hay don, Wouldham.

GEOLOGY, &C.

The Geologists' Association.— The last issue
of this ever welcome "Proceedings" contains the
following papers : — " On the Pleistocene (non-marine)
MoUusca of the London District," by B. B. Wood-
ward ; " An Account of the Excursion to the South
Italian Volcanoes," by Dr. Johnston Lavis; "Con-

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G 0 SSIP,

23

cretion in a Yorcdale Sand Quarry," by Dr. Hind ;
" Manufacture of Serpentine in Nature's Laboratory,"
by Gen McMahon ; "A New Species of Capulus,"
by Professor Boulger ; " An Erosion near Stirling,"
by H, W. Monckton ; "The Auriferous Series of
Nova Scotia," by Geoffry F. Monckton ; " The
Pebley Beds on and near the Addington Hills,
Surrey," by H. M. Klaasseu ; and " Pleistocene Sec-
tions in and near London," by W. F. Leevis Abbott.

A Huge Gold Nugget. — At a recent meeting of
the Geological Society, a model of the largest gold
nugget yet found in Western Australia, known as the
"Little Hero," weighing 330 oz. S dwts., found at
Shaw's Fall, 200 miles from Roebourne, and So from
Nullagine, at a depth of 8 inches, was exhibited by
Mr. Harry Page Woodward, F.G.S.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Colouring of Birds' Eggs.— Seeing Mr.
Hewett's note on colouring of birds' eggs, though he
especially wishes to hear from collectors about guille-
mots' and razorbills' eggs, I hope my note will not be
out of place. In the April issue I sent a letter on a
few varieties I had in my collection, and seeing this
interesting subject has started again I hope to see
other collectors give notes of their varieties, which
will be very interesting. In looking over my collec-
tion I find three interesting varieties of the lapwing's
egg ; one a cream colour closely marked at the thick
end with jet-black streaks which are very small,
another one of a grey or stone colour with faint
blotches of light-brown all over. Both specimens are
of usual size, but nearer white than the typical colour,
and both taken from different nests with full clutch of
four. The other specimen is in size and colour similar
to the black tern, if any difference a little darker, but
really if it had been found in a nest by itself near a
locality where the black tern breeds it would, I fear,
have been put amongst the rest under the above name.
It also was found in a nest with other three, making
the usual number found in the lapwing's nest. —
W. D. Rae.

Small-end Colouring of Sea-eirds' Eggs. —
Referring to the notes and observations on this subject
which have recently appeared in Science-Gossip, I
have looked through my collection of over a hundred
beautiful and interesting varieties of guillemot's eggs,
and find that I have three specimens which are
thickly marked at the points or small ends and very
sparingly on the other portions. The first is of an
almost white ground colour, with a blotch of black on
the small end, which extends about an inch from the
point all round the egg. There are also a few spots
of black scattered over the other part of the egg.
The ground colour of another is of a bluish tinge, with
a dark zone of different shades of brown and black
round the small end and speckled with the same
colours on the other part. A third, the ground
colour of which is not uniform ; part of it is of a
decidedly blue hue and the remainder of a bluish
green ; this egg has a zone of black round the small
end. I may mention that I have obtained these
varieties in a casual way, never having made a point
of procuring " small end " marked specimens. If I
have the opportunity next season I will note how
many I see at the cliffs and in the climbers'
possession of eggs so marked. — E. G. Potter, York.

The following flowers have been found in bloom'
here in December : corn buttercup, hawkweed picris,
red campion, comnKjn daisy, common mallow, red
clover, procumbent speedwell, dark blue speedwell,
common feverfew, furze, common nipplewort, creep- •
ing cinquefoil, common yarrow, lesser periwinkle,
hedge woundwort, creeping crowfoot, upright meadow
crowfoot, garlic, black horehound, common chick-
weed, yellow bedstraw, red dead-nettle, and ground-
sel.— H. G. Ward, Nortkmarston.

Natural History in January.— January is by
no means a dull month in the calendar of nature, for
many birds commence singing this month. The
song-thrush sings sweetly from the top of some tall
tree, while the skylarks are singing joyously over-
head. The hedge-sparrow, robin, and great-tit all
charm us with their music, and sometimes, too, if the
weather is mild, we may hear the long-drawn but
pleasant notes of the chaffinch. In the gardens,
snowdrops, primroses, garden daisies (red and white),
hepaticas (red and blue), gillies, the yellow globe
flower, and red and brown oxlips may be found in
flower this month. In the corn-fields and meadows
we may find red dead-nettle, procumbent speedwell,
groundsel, pansy, shepherd's purse, dandelion, white
dead-nettle, chickweed, and a few daisies. The bat
comes stealing out in the dusk of evening as the days
get longer. The fieldfares, redwings and starlings
frequent the meadows in large flocks, and in mild
weather, when the ground is moist, they find an
abundance of food. — //. G. ]Vard.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule q1'
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and genera!
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are fair
exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply
Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost
of advertising, an advantage is taken oi onx gratuitous insertion
of " exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To OUR Recent Exchangers. — We are willing and helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which now come to us from
Devonshire to appear unle=s as advertisements.

J. Capell. — The shells you sent are all rightly named
except No. 2, which is Planorbis carinatus, not P. vivipara —
the latter is very much larger. The fungus on leaf of sweet
William is Puccinia lychiiidearu-in.

T. S. A. — Get Dr. Cooke's recently published work on
" British Freshwater Algse," price ^s. — one of the International
Scientific Series.

A. T. — Richard Jefferies's books can be obtained of Messrs.
Chatto and Windiis.

R. S. — There is a capital little hand-book to the geology oi
Derbyshire, by the Rev. J. Mello, with geological map. Apply
to some Derbj' bookseller.

P. F.— Yes, the " Yoimg Collector" series is both cheap,
well got-up, and trustworthy. You cannot do better.

EXCHANGES.

Wanted, an injecting syringe and a Valentin's knife. —
H. P., 103 Camden Street, London, N.W.

Offered, i golden-crested wren, 2 bullfinches, 2 chaffinches,
2 moorhens, 2 magpies, 1 long-tailed tit, all side-blown, one
hole, in exchange for i coot, i common heron, i wild duck,
I partridge. Will exchange singly. — C. D. Heginbothom,
Patwell House, Bruton, Somerset.

24

BARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Oldhamia antiqiia and O. radatia, Cambrian rocks, Bray
Head. What offers in minerals or fossils for the above? —
William Doyle, Seapoint Road, Bray, Ireland.

Shells. — Pecten uta.xiiiius, P. iigrinus, P. opercularis,
LaSiEU rubra, Lucina spinifera, Cyprina islandicn, Astarte
iriaitgularis, Venus exoleta, V. lincta. Tapes virgineus,
Tectura testudinalis, Trocltus inontacuti, T. tuinidus, T.
inilligraiLus, T. Ziziphiiins, Rissoa metiibranacea, R.fulgida,
R. cingillus, R. violacea, Hydrobia ulvie, H. -jentrosa,
Natica niontacuti, N. alderi, Trickotropsis borealis, Cerith-
opsis iubercularts, Murex erinacens, Defrancia linearis, and
Pleurotoma turricula. Also land and freshwater shells in
exchange for micro-slides, insects, shells not in collection, or
books on any of the above subjects, or what offers ? — W. D.
Rae, 9 Claremont Terrace, Alpha Road, Millwall, London, E.

Offered, Science-Gossip for 1SS5, and January to April,
1886; "Entomological Magazine," June, 1885, to April, 1886;
"The Entomologist," 188s (bound). Wanted, birds' eggs.—
O. Weiss, 87 Hasborne Road, Birmingham.

i\ WATER immersion of R. and J. Beck, cost 8/., nearly new
(180° N.A. i-os) ; a splendid lens. What offers?— E. Wagstaft,
3 Waterworks Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

American lepidoptera, and cocoons and chrysalids of same.
American birds' eggs and Indian relics offered for exotic
lepidoptera other than European. S. American, African, and
Australian especially desired. — Levi W. Mengel, Reading,
Penna.

Wanted, any books relating to microscopy, also good un-
mounted material, in exchange for choice microscopic slides of
every description. — R. Suter, 5 Highweek Road, Tottenham.

Duplicate copy of Christy's "Birds of Essex" (just pub-
lished, demy 8vo., price 15.?.), offered in exchange for any other
similar county ornithology. — W. W. Porteous, Saffron Walden.

Text-books for Intermediate Science (London), offered in
exchange for magic-lantern, slides, or text-books on geology,
mathematics, or mental and moral science. For list apply to —
"Magister," 8 Venetia Road, Finsbury Park, N.

Planorbis cornejcs, var. albida. Vertigo pyg7nixa, Balia per-
versa, &c., and first-class microscopic slides. Wanted, Vertigo
alpestris, and other British and foreign land and freshwater
shells. — William Moss, 13 Milton Place, .Ashton-under-Lyne.

I HAVE numerous duplicates in carboniferous fossils, in-
cluding lepidodendron, sigillaria, neuropteris, sphenopteris,
ulodenron, calamitcs, annularia, posidonia, aviculopecten, and
orthoceras. I shall be pleased to make exchanges for chalk or
eocene fossils.— W. A. Parker, 634 Market Street, Facit,
Rochdale.

Fifty foreign stamps (no German or English), " Playtime
Naturalist" (5J. book, quite new), "Works of Mrs. Hemans"
\5.r. book, quite new). What offers in exchange for any of the
above? — Richd. B. Corbishley, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lanes.

For exchange, good fossils from millstone grit of following
genus, all named and localized: productus, bakevellia, ger-
villia, orthis, natica, bellerophon, schizodus. Also from Yore-
dale shales, Gonatites reticulatus. Wanted, fossils from
Silurian, Ordovician, Cambrian. Send lists to — W. F. Holroyd,
Greenfield, near Oldham.

Will any collector of fossils, who has named duplicates to
spare, kindly send them to a small local museum now being
formed? Address — A. L. D., The Vicarage, Southboro, Tun-
bridge Wells.

Science-Gossip for 1889, "Naturalists' Gazette," 1889-90,
" Field Club," 1890, unbound, good condition. What offers in
natural history? — W. Tumbull, i Home Terrace, Edinburgh.

Heads of mummy cats, in very good preservation. Desiderata,
foreign sponges, echinidse, Crustacea, or insects. — C. Walker,
Mossy Bank, Egremont, Cheshire.

Seven hundred species of shells for exchange. Exotic land
shells particularly desired. Lists exchanged. — W. Bendall,
28 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W.

Australian plants. New Zealand ferns, mosses, lichens,
shells, and packets of micro material, with references to pub-
lished papers in which the deposits are described, offered in
exchange for foreign land and freshwater shells not in collec-
tion, or works on conchology. — W. A. Gain, Tuxford, Newark.

Wanted, side-blown eggs of sparrow-hawk, kestrel, landrail,
and many others, in exchange for rare eggs. — Jas. Ellison,
Stecton, Keighley.

W.\ntkd, fossils from various localities ; a large number of
good duplicates offered in exchange. — Thomas W. Reader,
171 Hemingfoad Road, London, N.

Offered, "Science for All," 5 vols, (unbound), Fullom's
"Marvels of Science," "Text-Book of Mineralogy," and
Professor Geikie's "Text-Book of Geology," &c., in exchange
for British land and freshwater mollusca not in collection.
Send list to — E. H. J. Baldock, 67 Brewer Street, Woolwich.

Shells from Red Crag. — Asiart^omaiii, C ardita planicosta,
cardiums, Cyrena cunuforinis, Natica clausa, pectens, Tro-
phon clathratuM, Pusus contrarius and antiquus, Nassa
reticosa. Purpura reticosa. Wanted, fossils from chalk, gault.
Weald clay, and Tunbridge Wells sands. — Curator, Oakfield,
Southborough, Tunbridge Wells.

Duplicates. — Sophina calias, Streptaxis Blanfordi, S.
Jiwobaldi, S. BuT^itanica, S. bombax, S. exacutus; Clausilia
Waageni, C. Theobaldi, C. insignis, C. Couldiana, C. cylin-

drica ; Helicarion Flemingii, Cataulus albescens, Raphatdus
chrysalis, Hybocystis gravida. Cyclop/torus Siamensis, C.
spcciosus. List of many others. Desiderata, Indian and South
American land shells. — Miss Linter, Arragon Close, Twicken-
ham.

Wanted, a good copy of Davidson's " Silurian Brachio-
poda," "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," series 5,
vol. iii., and any papers on the graptolites. — J. Bickeston
Morgan, Welshpool.

Wanted, about a tablespoonful of sand rich in microscopic
shells, forams, &c., also dried leaves of Onosjna taurica, and
frond of Davallia canariensis showing fructification. — H.
Ebbage, Framlingham, Suffolk.

Offers wanted for 13 vols, of Science-Gossip, 1875-1887,
bound in publisher's blue cloth, in good condition. Address —
H. Muller, Mottinghani, Eltham, Kent.

Side-blown eggs of whinchat, sedge, garden and willow
vvarblers, tree and meadow pipits, skylark, reed bunting, great
titmouse, bullfinch, rook, jackdaw, swallow, sandmartin, ring-
dove and lapwing for exchange. Offers to — R. Larder, 33
Mercer Row, Louth, Lines.

Science-Gossip (1885-89) in exchange for perfect micro-
slides or recent text-books — list first. — W. E. Watkins, 32 Hun-
tingdon Street, Barnsbury, N.

Wanted, a petrological microscope, with or without acces-
sories, by Swift or Crouch. Particulars to— Micro, 8 Tothill
Street, S.W.

Wanted, M. pellucida, incurva, H. ventrosa, P. fon-
tinale, PL dilatus, A. Iac7istris, &c. Offered, P. contecta,
P. corneus, and many other British land, freshwater and marine
shells. — W. T. Pearce, loi Mayfield Road, Seafield, Gosport.

" Magazine of Natural History," conducted by Loudon and
Charlesworth, 1 829-1840, 13 vols., half-calf, Hooker's "Stu-
dent's British Flora," "Naturalist," vol. v., 1879-1880, ento-
mological collecting box, japanned tin, iij inches by 8 inches,
hardly used, in exchange for works on natural history, Her-
bert's " Amaryllidacese," or offers. — Rev. W. W. flemyng,
Clonegam Rectory, Portlaw, co. Waterford.

Wanted, foreign worms, living or in spirits, in exchange for
British earthworms correctly named (including Allurus tetra;-
drus, Allolobophora chlorotica, Lumbricus rubellus, the
Brandling and others) ; sent alive or preserved. — Rev. Hilderic
Friend, F.L.S., Idle, Bradford.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED.

"The Autobiography of the Earth," by the Rev. H. N.
Hutchinson (London : Edward Stanford). — " Fresh-Water
Aquaria," by the Rev. Gregory C. Bateman. — " Poems," by
Nina F. Layard. — "Applied Geography," by J. Scott Kettie
(London: Geo. Philip & Son).— "Soap Bubbles," by C. V.
Boys ; and " Spinning-Tops," by J. Perry (London : S.P.C.K.).
—"Pasteur and Rabies," by T. M. Doulon (London: G. Bell
& Sons). — " Sound, Light, and Heat," by J. Spencer (London :
Percival & Co.).— "Electro-Motors," by S. R. Battone (Lon-
don: Whittaker & Co.).— "Metal Turning," by a Foreman
Pattern Maker (London: Whittaker & Co.).— "The Natural
Food of Man," by Emmet Densmore (London : Pewtress &
Co.). — "The Electric Light Popularly Explained," by A.
Bromley Holmes (London : Bemrose & Sons). — " Fathers of
Biology," by Chas. McRae (London: Percival & Co.).— "The
Canary Book," Part 8.—" British Cage Birds," Part 8.—
" Researches on Micro-Organisms," by Dr. A. M. Griffiths
(London : Bailliere, Tindal & Cox). — " The Darwinian Theory
of the Origin of Species," by F. P. Pascoe (London: Gumey &
Jackson). — "The Geology of Barbadoes," by J. B. Harrison
and A. J. Jukes-Brown. — " Ocular Symptons found in Paralysis
of the Insane," by Dr. C. A. Otwer. — " The Essex Naturalist,"
July to September. — Wesley's "Nat. Hist, and Scientific
Book Circular," No. 105. — "American Microscopical Journal."
— "American Naturalist." — " Canadian Entomologist." — " The
Naturalist." — "The Botanical Gazette." — "The Gentleman's
Magazine." — "The Midland Naturalist."— "Feuille des
Jeiines Naturalistes." — " The Microscope." — " Nature Notes."
— "Proceedings of the Geologists' Association." — "The Philo-
sophy of Cycling." — " Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists'
Society." — "Transactions of the Penzance Nat. Hist, and
Antiquarian Society." — "The Naturalist's Annual and Direc-
tory for 1891." — "Journal and Proceedings of the Royal
Society of New South Wales."—" British Cage Birds," Part 7.
— " Electricity in Every-Day Life." — " Insect Life," Nos. 2
and 3. — " Revision of a Genus of Fossil Fishes, Dapedius."—
" The Geology of Sutton Coldfield," &c., &c.

Communications received up to the 14TH ult. from :
C. D. H.— F. A. L.— H. B.— J. E. L.— H. P.— E. W.—

V. T.— Miss L.— E. H. J.
;.— W. J. S.— J. E.— E. 6.

—J. W. R.— J. B. M.— W. A. G.— W. J. S.— J. E.— E. G. P.
— W. B.— E. B.— Dr. G. T. C. M.— C. W.— F. C. M —
L. W. M.— r. C. S.— R. S.— H. D.— W. W. P.— W. M.—
W. A. P.— W. B.— R. A. B.— J. B. C— A. B. G.— W. E. W.
W. T. P.-G. H.— H. M.— H. G. W.— W. W. F.— W. T. H.
— H. W.— Dr. A. O.— A. B. G.— A. E. S.— R. B. C— V. A. L.
— C. W. P.-&C., &c.

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SI P.

25

TWO SIDES OF THE MEDAL.

By ALICE BODINGTON.

N employing a meta-
phor drawn from
common life to
illustrate the curi-
ous tendency of
the human mind
to look only at
one side of a
question, I take
refuge behind the
great name of Mr.
Herbert Spencer,
who drives heme
some of his
weightiest argu-
ments by the help
of familiar meta-
phors.

We will suppose
a medal struck in
memory of some
great event in the history of a nation. On the
one side is represented a figure of the country ; on
the other a fleet in full sail. What should we say
if two opposing schools arose, one of whom vehe-
mently maintained that the medal represented a
female figure, whilst the other as stoutly contended
that it^represented a fleet ? Should we not feel in-
clined to exclaim, " A plague o' both your houses !"
and request the disputants to look at both sides of
the [medal ? Yet, notwithstanding the incredible
progress attained by physical science through steady
adherence to the principles of inductive reasoning,
there seems some weakness of the human mind
whichlleads it constantly into the old vicious methods
of a priori argument. People do not now sit down
and proceed to construct a scheme of the universe
out^of their own inner consciousness, and make all
facts fit into a bed of Procrustes, as was the cheerful
custom with philosophers of old. But, whilst ap-
pearing to follow the inductive method with sedulous
No. 314, — February 1891.

care, there is too often a fatal bias in the thinker't
mind, which places everything which makes for his
theory in a bright light, and obscures, or wholh
blots out, all evidence that goes against it. In many
cases, perhaps in most, the thinker is not aware of
his bias, but, as Darwin says in one of his letters,
"Nearly all men past a moderate age, whether in
years or in mind, are, I am firmly convinced, in-
capable of looking at facts from a new point of
view.' And for this reason he " thinks 'it of im-
portance " that intelligent men who are not natu-
ralists should read his book, because he " thinks
such men will drag after them those naturalists
whose ideas are fixed." In reading Mr. Wallace's
"Darwinism," I have been forcibly reminded again
and again of the words just quoted. Mr. Wallace,
one of the few still left to us of a generation of great
men, has had the happy fortune to inspire, in those
who only know him through his works, not only
high esteem but affection. High esteem for the
quiet magnanimity with which he accorded to Dar-
win the victor's wreath he might have aspired to
wear himself; affection, for the kindness of heart his
works constantly betray — a kindness of heart which
shrinks from seeing that "Nature, red in tooth and
claw," of whose existence most of us are painfully
aware. But, notwithstanding the sentiments of
affection and esteem which are inspired by the name
of Mr. Wallace, it is impossible to avoid the con-
clusion that his mind is hardly, if at all, influenced
by the discoveries of the last quarter of a century.
It is true that he alludes to some of these, but in a
very cursory way, as though hardly worthy of atten-
tion or of argument. He believes in natural selection
pure and simple, with its odd theory of constant
variations occurring for no reason, and owing their
origin to nothing in particular. Moreover, these
erratic variations must occur of their own accord in
successive generations, because he can find no satis-
factory evidence of use or disuse of parts being
inherited ! Nor, though he admits that changes in

c

26

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

individuals take place through the action of the
environment, he will not admit that these changes
are inherited ! Yet he believes in changes in breeds
of domestic animals through "selection." How can
selection act, if there is no inherent force to initiate
the change? If individual peculiarities are inherited,
then it is quite natural that a pointer puppy should
point ; but if they are not, why should he not
accidentally vary in some other direction ? There
must be some internal force rendering variation
possible, or the breeder might select for ever without
producing any effect. Practically, in every-day life
every one acts upon the assumption that individual
peculiarities are transmitted, with or without selec-
tion. Defects of body and mind, and liability to
succumb to certain diseases, are also only too well
known to be transmissible from one generation to
another. Deaf-mutes have children who are deaf-
mutes, though atavism hinders all the children from
inheriting this defect ; and the same remark applies
to persons with supernumerary toes and fingers.
Where one parent has been the victim of phthisis or
of insanity, the children are in danger of succumbing
to the same disease ; where both parents have fallen
victims, the chances are increased to a frightful
degree. It is almost impossible to imagine how the
strongest prepossessions against heredity can hold
out in the face, not only of countless arguments from
science, but x)f the practical experience of mankind
in all ages.

Mr. Wallace devotes one chapter only to the
geological evidence of evolution ; but even in the
very brief sketch he gives, there appears such over-
whelming evidence of the influence of heredity and its
effects in perfecting or aborting every organ of
animals, and the slight, fine modifications in certain
directions by which the changes from fossil to
existing species have been effected, that one thinks he
cannot remain unconvinced, and that he must beheve
these modifications to be hereditary. We almost
doubt the evidence of our eyes when we read this
passage, " There is now much reason to believe that
the supposed inheritance of acquired modifications —
that is of the effects of use and disuse, or of the
direct action of the environment — is not a fact."
That is, we are to believe that all the modifications
leading steadily upwards or downwards, the limbs
perfected for speed of the horse and deer, the utter
absence of limbs in certain lizards, the specialisation
of the dentition of animals varying cusp by cusp and
tooth by tooth, the improvement in brain capacity
from Eocene times to our own, the persistence of
rudimentary organs not only useless but dangerous to
their present possessors ; we are gravely asked to
believe that all these modifications are the result
of a series of accidents occurring generation after
generation with results more and more marked, yet
all uninherited and accidental ! Can any one who
has been impressed with the grand simplicity and

uniformity of the great Laws of Nature, believe that
evolution is due to an infinite number of happy
accidents? We know of a law which answers al!
those requirements of simplicity and uniformity of a
great Law of Nature, which is in harmony with all
the apparently complicated phenomena of life, which
solves problems otherwise insoluble, the Law of the
Action of the Environment upon Irritable Proto-
plasm. And we are asked to set it aside as non-
existent, and believe in innumerable accidental
variations, as an efficient substitute !

Mr. Wallace refers, with high approval, to Professor
Weismann's now celebrated lectures. If the theory
which Professor Weismann considers he has proved in
his laboratory is contradicted by the evidence of
zoologists and paleontologists, as well as by the
universal practical experience of mankind, then it is
clear that laboratory work will not explain every-
thing, and that the methods employed have been
erroneous. But what shall we say when we are
asked to accept a theory of which there is not one
iota of tangible proof, which is, if anything, entirely^
contradicted by facts, and to accept this hypothesis
as the only side of the medal ? Professor Weismann's
theory in brief is that the "substance which forms
the foundation of all the phenomena of heredity, in my
opinion, can only be the substance of the germ-cells,
and this substance transfers its hereditary tendencies
from generation to generation, and is always unin-
fluenced in any corresponding manner by that which
happens in the lifetime of the individual. If
these views be correct, all our ideas upon the trans-
formation of species require thorough modification,
for the whole principle of evolution by means of
exercise (use and disuse) as proposed by Lamarck,
and accepted in some eases by Darwin, entirely
collapses."*

When we read that views held not only by
Lamarck, but by a host of illustrious men of science
who have evidence at their command, which
Lamarck and Darwin would have given worlds to
possess, are to collapse before a certain theory, we
expect this theory to have been founded on some-
thing that has at least been seen and observed. But it
turns out that everything has to be "assumed." The
assumption is that only a part of the germ-cell is
used in the formation of the future animal ; the
remainder of the cell as " germ-plasm " is reserved to
be handed on to future generations. I have
endeavoured to reproduce this idea by a rough
diagram.

" The germ cells f are not derived at all, so far as
their essential substance is concerned, from the body
of the individual, but they are derived directly from
the parent germ-cell. " The body (somatic) cells have.
Prof. Weismann repeatedly declares, nothing what-
ever to do with the production of the germ -plasm.

* " Biological Memoirs," p. 69.

t Ibid. p. 168.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

27

Yet he goes on to say that in all cases but that of
Ihe Dipteia,* " generative cells arise from some of the
later embryonic cells, and as these belong to a more
advanced ontogenetic stage in the development of
•the idioplasm,! we can only conclude that continuity
is maintained by assuming, as I do, that a small part
of the germ-plasm remains unchanged during the
division of the first segmentation nucleus, and remains
mixed with the idioplasm of a certain series of cells,
and that the formation of true germ-cells is brought
about at a certain point in the series by the appear-
ance of cells in which the germ-plasm becomes
predominant. But if we accept this hypothesis, it
does not matter theoretically " [the italics are mine]
*' whether the germ-plasm becomes predominant in
the third, tenth, hundredth or millionth generation
of cells." In the same way, when we are dealing
Avith imaginary fortunes, it does not matter whether
we endow our hero with a thousand pounds a year or
a million. We seem landed in the happy old days
when one philosopher derived everything from fire,
and another derived everything from water, and one
hypothesis did just as well as another theoretically.
The germ-plasm, which governs heredity, may exist
or it may not ; nobody has seen it, nor is likely to
see it unless the laws of optics change. Something
con^veys hereditary tendencies in a mannor as extra-
ordinary as it is mysterious. The hermaphrodite
worm, which, if ontogeny does not deceive us, was
the ancestor of the vertebrata, has impressed his nature
upon all of us in the form of innumerable embryonic
and rudimentary structures. J

Prof. Weismann may be perfectly correct so far as
he maintains that heredity is the work of his germ-
plasm, and the manner in which he works out this
part of his theory is delightful. It is when he claims
that variability is also the characteristic of his
imaginary substance, to the exclusion of any influence
exerted by the somatic cells, that one refuses to
accept theory in place of facts. He will look only at
his own side of the medal, though he appears sincerely
to wish to look at the other as well. Eyes do not
atrophy through disuse ; short sight is not inherited ;
a pointer doesn't point because his ancestors have
been trained to point, but through a predisposition
on the part of the germ.§ A predisposition to
point on the part of a germ ! He denies even the
heredity of instinct, and says there is no transmission
of acquired skill even in insects ! Where facts are so
overwhelmingly strong that it is impossible to meet
them, he always says "our knowledge on the subject
is still very defective." Let us only know more, and
the germ will be proved all-potent. In the meantime
he complacently says : " The inheritance of acquired

* " Biological Memoirs," p. 197.

+ Called \isiially germ-plasm.

I " Introduction to Lectures on Pathology," by J. Bland
Sutton.

5 "Myopia may be attributed to the transmission of an
accidental disposition on the part of the germ." Pp. 86, 89,
•93. 95-

characters has never been proved either by means of
direct observation or by experiment " ! Such an
assertion takes one's breath away, and makes one
wonder how far a very eminent man can be blinded
bj^ a theory.

This fatal tendency to adapt all facts to a foregone
conclusion or a pet theory, and to minimise or ignore
those that militate against it, the inability or the
unwillingness to look at both sides of the medal, is
seen in every department of science. The greatest
minds have been keenly alive to this danger, and nc
more illustrious example can be found of devotion to
truth at all costs than that of Newton.* His early
theories on the law of gravitation were given up by
him as untenable, because of difficulties in reconcihng
this law with the motions of the moon in her orbit.
Ilis study of the subject was only resumed after a
lapse of eleven years. Yet Newton's original calcu-
lations and his theory were perfectly correct, only the
original calculations were founded on an erroneous
estimate of the length of a degree of latitude on the
earth's surface, which had to be corrected before
theory and facts could agree. INIany of the theories
of this illustrious Englishman "were left in an im-
perfect state, for it is not in matters of science that it
is given to the same individual to invent and to bring
to perfection. Their complete development required
that several subsidiary sciences should be farther
advanced." Fortunately no zealous friend was found
to treat the conclusions of Newton as final, and dub
them ' Newtonism ' ! The words of Mr. Proctor,
just quoted, may most fitly be employed in speaking
of the theories of one not less illustrious than Newton ;
of one not less scrupulously anxious that his theories
should be confirmed at all points by facts ; yet of one
who could not see his grand hypothesis of evolution
attain to its full development, because this required
that " several subsidiary sciences should be farther
advanced." We do not hear of a ' School of Newton,'
priding itself on firmly making a stand at the point to
which the great philosopher, with the imperfect data
at his command, had attained; why in the name of
science, or rather of simple common sense, should we
hear of anything so absurd as a " Darwinian school."
How earnestly would the great master himself have
deprecated such an absurdity. His own mind was
constantly open to the reception of new ideas.
What mattered it to him that some of these ideas
threatened to conflict with the brilliant hypothesis, on
which much of his fame rested, ie., the development
of species through natural selection. All that he
cared for — all that he had ever cared for in science,
was to ascertain the truth ; and again and again in
his works he deplores the imperfect data he had to
work from. Especially does he deplore the extreme
imperfection of the geological record, and it is on

* "Encyclopaedia Britannica," articles 'Newton,' p. 441,
and ' Astronomy,' p. 75G.

C 2

28

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

this very point that the most gigantic strides have
been made in our knowledge of late years.

I will quote a few jmssages showing the feelings of
Darwin on this subject, and how far he was from
making a fixed creed of his own conclusions.

" In many cases it is most difficult even to
conjecture by what transitions organs have arrived at
their present state." *

*' In searching for the gradations through which an
organ in any species has been perfected, we ought to
look exclusively to its lineal progenitors ; but this is
scarcely ever possible." t

It is hardly necessary to say what brilliant work
has elucidated these difficulties of late years.
Embryologists have traced the stages through which
every part of the future animal passes on its way to
its own form of diffeientiation ; as for instance the
modifications of the bones in the leg and wing of the
chick, in which, at an early period the indications of
a former five-toed condition can be seen ; the germs
of teeth destined never to cut the gum, and the
consolidation of the bones in ruminants and equid^s ;
and the three sets of kidneys in vertebrates.

Palaeontologists have had successes as brilliant ;
they can show the phylogeny of an immense number
of our present mammals, whilst the embryologists have
demonstrated their ontogeny: the "lineal pro-
genitors" have been found. Darwin says % , " Two
forms can seldom be connected by intermediate
varieties, and thus proved to be the same species,
until many specimens are collected from many places ;
and with fossil species this can rarely be done. We
shall perhaps best perceive the improbability of our
being able to connect species by numerous fine
intermediate fossillinks, by asking ourselves whether,
for instance, geologists at some future period will be
able to prove that our different breeds of cattle, sheep,
horses, and dogs are descended from a single stock or
from several aboriginal stocks. . . . This could be
effected only by his discovering in a fossil state
numerous intermediate gradations ; and such success
is improbable in the highest degree." This success,
which the great master thought " improbable in the
highest degree " has been attained ; and the
"numerous, fine, intermediate gradations in the
fossil state," have been traced.

Again, in arguing with writers who assert the im-
mutability of species by asserting that geology yields
no linking forms, he say5,§ " If we take a genus
having a score of species, recent and extinct, and
destroy four-fifths of them, no one doubts that the
remainder will Stand much more distinct from each
other. . . . What geological research has not re-
vealed is the former existence of infinitely numerous
gradations, as fine as existing varieties, connecting
together nearly all existing and extinct species. But
this ought not to be expected." So far is the great

master from hoping, that before one generation hacf
grown up since his death, these " infinitely numerous
variations, as fine as existing varieties," "connecting
existing with extinct species"; "these numerous,
fine, intermediate fossil links " would be found in
countless numbers, and that the ancestral forms no^.

" Origin of Species," p. 156.
Ibid. p. 279.

t Ibid. p. 144.
j Ibid. p. 280.

pjg_ y.—a, reproductive cell ; b, nucleus, which after extrusion
of the polar globules will form the future animal or plant ;
c, " germ-plasm " left over to carry on the qualities of
ancestors, and transferred from generation to generation.
Whatever changes occur in an animal are due entirely to
modifications of the " germ-plasm."

only of our " different breeds of cattle, sheep, horses
and dogs," but those of the bear, the cat, the weasel,
the rhinoceros, the camel and of countless other
animals would be accurately known. *

And, with regard to his own special hypothesis of
evolution through natural selection, he speaks again
and again of our ignorance of the causes which have
given rise to those variations upon which natural
selection has to work. The battle which Darwin
had to fight was to prove the evolution and conse-
quent changeability of species, in opposition to
opponents who believed in the special creation and
unchangeability of species. Having had that great
battle won for them, scientific men have had leisure
to turn their attention to the cause of the variations
controlling evolution. Later in his life, after having
borne the burden and heat of the day, Darwin had
more leisure to turn his own attention to this most
important question. The following extracts will
exemplify the earlier and later phases of his opinions
on this subject : — " Variations appear to arise from
the same unknown causes acting on the cerebraf
organization, which induce slight variations or indi-
vidual differences in other parts of the body ; and
these variations, ozving to our ignorance, are often said
to arise spontaneously." f (The italics are mine.)
After speaking of the number of facts collected with
respect to the transmission of the most trifling, as
well as of the most important characters in man, and
also in domestic animals, he says : " With regard to
the causes of variability, we are in all cases very
ignorant." And again, he speaks of the "complex
and little-known laws governing the production of
varieties," being " the same, so far as we can judge,
as the laws which have governed the production of
distinct species." J

* " Origin of the Fittest " (Professor Cope) ; " Les Ancetres
de nos Animaux" (Gaudry) ; "The Mammalia" (Oscar
Schmidt.

t "Descent of Man," pp. 38, no, in.

X "Origin ol Species," p. 415.

HARD WICKE ' 5 5 CIENCE- G 0 SSIP.

29

The last passages I shall quote are pathetic, in
view of the persistent attempts to connect Darwin

J'-igs. Siand g.— Dissection of the Leg of a Chick at the fifth
and eighth day of incubation (after Johnson). Fe, femur;
T, tibia ; F, fibula ; A, astragalus (tibiale) ; Ta, tarsalia.

The numerals refer to the digits. (From "Introduction to
Lectures on Pathology," by Bland Sutton.)

with the narrow, unprogressive school which strives
to identify itself with his name. He says:* "It

* "Origin of Species," p. 421 (1872).

appears that I formerly underrated the frequency and
value of these later forms of variation " (viz. adaptive
structures which have arisen by the direct action of
external conditions). "But as my conclusions have
lately been much misrepresented, and it has been
stated that I attribute the modification of species
exclusively to natural selection, I may be permitted
to remark that .... I placed in a most conspicuous
position the following words : • I am convinced that
natural selection has been the main, but not the
exclusive means of modification.' This has been of
no avail. Great is the power of steady misrepresenta-
tion, but the history of science shows that fortunately
this power does not long endure." But his views
were gradually changing as to the importance of the
action of the environment in evolution ; and in one
of his later letters he says : " In my opinion the
greatest error which I have committed has been not
allowing sufficient weight to the direct action of the
environment, independently of natural selection." *

We have an equally fine instance of the willingness
to accept new ideas, however much they might
apparently be in opposition to his own views, in the
attitude of Mr. Herbert Spencer towards this very
theory of natural selection. As early as 1864, in his
"Principles of Biology," f with that prophetic
instinct which characterises genius, he had laid down
those principles of evolution now often spoken of as
Neo-Lamarckian. For Lamarck, animated by the
same prophetic genius, had foreseen the prepotent
power of the action of environment, though his data
were so imperfect, so apparently empirical, that his
theory was laughed to scorn. Mr. Herbert Spencer
had pointed out the influence of the environment on
the very simplest unicellular organisms, had traced it
up to more and more complex organisms, had
shown its influence upon every part of the body and
its struggle with atavism, or the principle of heredity
so strongly possessed by all animal and vegetable
cells. Of the many hundreds of brilliant discoveries
in chemistry, pathology, biology, and palaeontology,
which from every side now confirni his theories, he
could not then avail himself; yet his conclusions are
confirmed in almost every instance by what these
sciences have revealed to us. Yet in his "Factors
of Organic Evolution," published twenty-two years
later, he is ready to resign his victor's wreath to
Darwin, he acknowledges him as a teacher, and
bears witness to the priceless services rendered to the
cause of the evolutionary theory by the publication of
the " Origin of Species." He sees both sides of the
medal, but he does not at that date appear to have
grasped the fact that each side belongs to the same
medal, and that natural selection is only one mani-
festation of that great Law of the Action of the
Environment on all organic beings, of which he was

* "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," vol. ii., p. 338.
t "Principles of Biology," pp. 7, 12, T, 74i 7Sj 80, 83, 226,
235> 294. 296, 311. 322. &c.

3°

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

the brillant exponent. In its simplest manifestation
it influences the protoplasm of unicellular organisms ;
in its more complicated manifestations it decrees the
extermination of the South Sea Islanders, by the
alien civilisation, the diseases, and the rum of the
white man. It dwarfs the pines on the tundras of
Siberia till they finally dwindle into trailing weeds
four to five inches high ; it increases the size, or the
speed, or the marketable value, whatever it may be,
of iOur domestic animals ; it has changed tlie fierce
wolf and the cowardly jackal into the only animal
which has won, by its high mental and moral
qualities, the title of the friend of man.* It has been
proved that the action of the environment, and no
mysterious " vital force " preserves the liquid con-
dition of the blood in living veins, or causes its
coagulation. No function is too high or too low for
its all-pervading influence; just as the law of gravitation
acts upon the minutest speck of matter, as inflexibly
as it acts upon the solar system.

I trust that in this necessarily imperfect sketch I
have at least shown how unjustifiable is the attempt
to associate the great name of Darwin with the un-
progressive school which arrogates to itself the right
of claiming to be his special disciples. To demon-
strate fully how baseless in ascertained fact is
Professor Weismann's theory of "germ-plasm " would
require a special article ; but I have endeavoured to
indicate a few of its weak points, and to show its
constant need of assumptions as bases of reasoning.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

•[RESEARCHES ON MICRO-ORGANISMS,
jTV by Dr. A. B. Griffiths (London : Bailliere,
Tindal, & Cox). Dr. Griffiths is well known as one
of the most painstaking and industrious of our
younger school. of scientists, and he has here pro-
duced a very useful manual of reference, which
includes an account of all the recent experiments on
the destruction of Microbes in various infectious
diseases, and is illustrated by fifty-two woodcuts,
Just at present Bacteriology is dominant, ten years
ago hardly a few scores of people knew what the
term meant. A general knowledge of the subject is
now incumbent on all medical men, apothecaries, and
journalists. Dr. Grifiiths, however, does not claim
his book to be a manual of Bacteriology, after the
manner of Dr. Crookshank. It is rather an expose
of the researches which throw light on the pathology
and therapeutics of certain infectious diseases.
Nevertheless, it throws a very large cast-net over the
whole field of the subject, including an outline of the
natural history of Microbes in general ; their
microscopical examination, classification, cultivation,
distribution in earth, air, and water ; the various

* For the ancestry of the dog, see "The Mammalia," by
Oscar Schmidt. International Scientific Series.

methods of micro-biological research, the nature of
various ferments ; production of Ptomaines ; speciaS
ferments ; the various substances secreted by
Microbes ; the action of heat on microbes and their
spores ; an account of the researches of Koch, Klein,.
Pasteur, Bert, Parsons, Duclaux, Forster, and others,
to which we are pleased to see the author has added
his own, which are not the least interesting. There
are also lengthy and varied chapters on Germicides
and antiparasitic therapeutics ; the General Biology
of the Microbes of Rabies, Yellow Fever, Pleuro-
pneumonia, Foot-and-mouth Disease, Cattle Plague,
Pyaimia, Septiccemia, Puerperal Fever, Syphilis-
tuberculosis, Anthrax, Swine Fever, &c. The last
chapter is an excellent summary of the recent
experiments on the destruction of microbes in infec-
tious diseases, in which, of course, those of Professor
Koch occupy a prominent position. Dr. Griffiths has
produced a useful as well as a thoroughly good
book.

Astronomical Lessons, by J. E. Gore (London :
Sutton, Drowley, & Co.). We cordially recom-
mend this well got up little book, the work of a well-
known astronomer and astronomical writer, as one of
the best introductions to the study of the "noble
science " we have yet come across. It contains
twenty-two short chapters dealing with a large and
general range of astronomical knowledge, all of
course brought up to the most recent date. The
book is well illustrated.

Applied Geography, by J. Scott Keltie (London :
George Philip & Son). This is altogether a novel
and acceptable departure from the too traditional
method of teaching geography. Much of its con-
tents have appeared as articles in leading magazines,,
lectures given before the Society of Arts, the College
of Preceptors, the Bankers' Institute, etc., and the-
book is illustrated by excellent illustrative maps^
It contains five chapters headed as follows : —
"Preliminary Considerations," "Geography applied
to Commerce," "The Geography of Africa in its
Bearings on the Development of the Continent."
(two chapters on this all-important subject), "The
British Empire," and " Some Common Com-
modities."

London of the Past, by J. Ashton Ainscoughi
(London : Elliot Stock). This is a small, delightfully
written and accurate history of the most wonderful'
and interesting city in the world. It is a straight-
forward narrative, neither encumbered with comment
nor laden with petty details.

Elementary Treatise on Hydrodynamics and Sound,
by A. B. Bassett, F.R.S. (Cambridge : Deighton,
Bell cS: Co. ). The author's fame as a mathematician
is well known, and his previous works on these
special subjects have deservedly acquired for him the-
rank of an authority. It is a most useful work oa
mathematical physics, and includes much which will
prove valuable to mathematical electricians par-

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

31

ticularly. We do not known any other manual which
so clearly and succinctly deals with the Theory
of Sound, in its various departments.

The Electric Light Popularly Explained, by A.
JBromley Holmes (London : Bembrose & Sons).
This cheap, little, well-written, and easily-understood
brochure ought to be in every house in England, and
read by every intelligent resident. (Fifth edition.)

Our Fancy Pigeons, by George Ure (London :
Elliot Stock). This is an interestingly-written record
of fifty years' experiences in pigeon breeding, and the
^author is a genial and observant naturalist besides.
Mr. Ure's name as an authority upon the subject of
this book is sufficient to command for it a large
circulation.

Metal Turning (London: Whittaker & Co.).
One of a valuable series of cheap and practical
manuals, well and abundantly illustrated, which will
considerably help on the all-important subject of
Technical education. It is written by " A Foreman
Pattern-Maker," and tells and explains and illustrates
to the reader all the particulars of the Lathe, and its
various tools.

Electro j\Iotors, by S. R. Bottone (London :
Whittaker & Co.). Another of the same series.
Mr. Bottone has been in the front of popular and
practical teachers and writers on electro-dynamos for
ten years past. The brightly got up little manual
before us has been prepared by him specially for
amateurs as well as practical men.

l\Iagnetistn and Electricity, by J. Spencer (London :
Percival & Co.). Another addition to the numerous
"manuals " written for the over-manualised students
of South Kensington, who exist and are tortured for
the benefit of "The Department." Mr. Spencer's
book is a good one, nevertheless ; although we always
feel sorry for the over-written "students of South
Kensington," wherever they may be.

Sound, Light, and Heat, by J. Spencer (London :
Percival & Co.). Another "iclass-book " for
-students of South Kensington in the elementary
stage. It is of course a good little book, and is
written by a man who knows how to teach, and
something of the people who have to be taught.

The Dai-winian Theory of the Origin of Species, by
Francis P. Pascoe (London : Gurney & Jackson).
Mr. Pascoe is one of the best literary naturalists of
ithe day, and anything he has to say on subjects like
.those discussed in this pleasant little book is bound to
ibe listened to. Mr. Pascoe dwells particularly on the
fact (which we have been for years maintaining) that
Darwinism and evolution are not identical. The
former is a minor, the latter is a major term. Darwin
discovered and propounded the Doctrine of Natural
selection, and many of his too-ardent followers
imagined that was sufficient to settle all biological
•difficulties. But Darwin himself knew better, for he
grafted the theory of Sexual Selection upon it. The
fact is. Evolution includes not only natural selection.

and sexual selection, but perhaps a hundred, a
thousand, other active and operative agencies
besides. We cordially recommend Mr. Pascoe's
book as a valuable contribution to the literature _of
evoiutidn.

A FEW NOTES CONCERNING COCHINEAL.
{COCCUS CACTI.)

By H. DURRANT.

THIS insect which we use as a dye was supposed,
previous to about 1714, to be some kind of a
seed, although it was said by Acosta, as early as 1530,
to be an insect. However, its real nature is now
placed beyond doubt. Mexico is the real home of
the cochineal, but it is also cultivated in Teneriffe and
several other places. The cochineal we get is about
as large as a peppercorn, shrivelled, and of a dark,
purplish colour, ovate, convex and transversely
furrowed above, smooth beneath. Externally it
appears covered with a fine white powder, but when
the insect is examined under the microscope, this is
resolved into fine hair.

The males do not enjoy a very long spell of life,
generally dying when about a month old. Their
wings are perfectly white. The females are the only
ones of any value, from a commercial point of view.
When they have selected the leaf which is to serve
them as a habitation, they fix themselves to a leaf by
their proboscis and never leave it. There are two
varieties of cochineal : the wild kind, called by the
Spaniards Grana sylvestra, and the cultivated variety,
or Grana fina, which] is greatly superior to the former
in regard to the furnishing of colouring matter.

The wild kind is much more downy, though uot so
large as the cultivated insect, but by cultivation it
becomes larger, and loses much of its woolly
appearance.

The cochineal feeds on several species of cactus,
principally Cactus cochinellifer and Opuntia cochiw
illifera (Nopal cactus). It does ^not, as formerly
supposed, derive its colour from the juice of the plant
on which it feeds, whose flowers are red, because the
insect can be reared upon different species of Opuntia
whose flowers are not red.

One of them {Opuntia cochiitillifera) is cultivated
for the purpose in Honduras and Mexico. When the
time arrives for the insects to be collected, they are
brushed off the trees with the tail of an animal, into
bags, and killed by immersing in boiling water.
They are then taken out and dried thoroughly in the
sun, and put up in serons, or skin bags, for
exportation.

The qualities of a good insect, when dried, should
be that they are plump and dry. If they are small
and have a pink tinge they are least esteemed. The
colouring matter of cochineal is carminium, and was
first extracted by Pelletier and Caventon by digesting

32

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

cochineal in ether, treating the residue with boiling
alcohol, allowing it to cool, and treating the deposit
with pure alcohol ; by then adding its own volume of
sulphuric ether a deposit of carminium is formed.
Carminium is iincrystallisable and of a beautiful red
colour ; it fuses at 104°. It is soluble in water, but

Fig. 10. — Opvntia cochmillifera.

not in sulphuric ether or in essential or fixed oils.
Nitric or hydrochloric acid, chlorine and iodine
when in a concentrated solution destroy carminium,
but when dilute only enhance the brightness of its
colour. If alkaline solutions are added to carminium
its colour changes to purple. It is precipitated by
lime water.

When heated it is decomposed, but yields no
ammonia. Cochineal is principally used for dyeing,

Fig. II. — Coccus cacti {m7>\c). Fig. 12.— C(7a?« £ra<:i'/ (female).

and is employed chiefly in woollen goods ; the colour
is fixed by a mordant of alumina and oxide of tin, and
the colour is intensified by super-tartrate of potash.
Mixed with white it forms rouge ; and the colours,
carmine and lake are made from it.

To make a single pound of cochineal it is
estimated th.at no fewer than seventy thousand
insects are required. It was once considered an
extremely precious article, fetching sometimes as
much as 36.?. and 39^, per lb., but the price is now4J.
Previous to 1845 there existed a duty on cochineal,
but it is now abolished. It does not lose its properties
as a dye by prolonged keeping, if in a dry place.
Hellot made some experiments on dried Cochineal
which had been kept more than one hundred years,

and found their colour as rich as that from those jusi
obtained.

Adulteration is effected by mixing the dried up
skins of old, used insects with the genuine article,
also by artificially representing them in paste, but
they can generally be easily detected.

Another form of adulteration is sometimes
practised, and consists in mixing what is known ki
commerce as "East India Cochineal," and which is
a very inferior article with the real.

THE ROMAUNT OF BEDEGAR.

An Autobiography.

By the Rev. H. Friend, F.L.S.

\Continued from p. 11.]

THAT you may see first of all how much atten-
tion was formerly paid to my ancestors, I
will tell you what one of the old writers on medi-
cine has to say about me. It is true that his
language is somewhat dry and uninteresting to many,
but, as we all feel a special pride in hearing what
people say about us, I may be forgiven if I am
somewhat vain of the learned names by which my
family has been ; distinguished. This writer, then,
in a brief chapter on Spina alba, says it is also
known as '■'' Akantha laike. Wood Cyanara (a name
which has since been applied to a relative of
the thistle family, and is specially associated with
the artichoke), Donacitis, Venus' Sceptre (so I
understand the name Eyysi sceptrum, which the
names Frawcn Distel and Mary's Thistle confirm).
White Thistle, Royal Thistle, Robber Thistle. In
Hebrew it may be called Atad laban, that is. Spina
alba. The German name is White Way-Thistle.
This is what the Arabs call Bedeguar; it is also
known as the Herb of the House or House-wort," —
I suppose because of the remarkable qualities attri-
buted to certain parts of the plant when employed as
a medicine. It should be observed that in the fore-
going account of my ancestors the maternal side is
especially referred to, since spina and acanthus are
both feminine. However, in later times, when people
began to think more of the father than of the mother,
one Galen adopted the masculine gender for this
name, and, when using it as one word, converted it
into Leucacanthon. Hence it is that we find this
term in very frequent use (not without a good deal
of confusion) among more recent authorities on
plants. I wish to impress upon my readers at this
point the important fact that, so far as we have
pursued my family history, every name which my an-
cestors received — whether Bedegar in Arabic, Acan-
thus in Greek, Spina in Latin, or Atad in Hebrew,
or Distel in German — had reference to the thorny or
prickly nature of the original plant. To make this
matter quite certain I have fortunately been able to

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

33

come upon the portrait of one of my grandparents,
which was published about three hundred and fifty
years ago, or in the early half of the sixteenth
century (a.d. 1543) in a valuable old work in Latin.
This is a picture of a thistle, with a full and detailed
description of its peculiarities. Among other things
there stated, I find that my ancestors were fond of
hilly and well-wooded regions, bore white leaves,
which were narrower and paler than those of the
chamreleon, with not a few hairs and prickles. The
stem grew to a height of two cubits and more, and
the flowers were purple. It is further added that
the seeds of this plant (which, it must be remem-
bered, grew amidst a head of cottony hairs or pappus
like the seeds of other thistles), were chiefly employed
in medicine. Here lies the secret of future mischief
and difficulty. It was entirely due to this fact that,
after the period we have now reached, a great deal
of uncertainty began to be realised when the original
Bedegar was asked for. Meanwhile, the name had
been spreading, along with the article, far and wide,
until alike, in France and England, as well as in
Germany, Spain, and other lands, the famous
medicine was to be found. I find in a list of herbs
which was written six hundred )"ears ago (before books
began to be printed) that our name occupies an
honourable position. It may interest the reader if
I reproduce this early reference. Let it be remem-
bered that medicines were spoken of formerly, as
they still are in the East, as hot and cold. Some
herbs are mild, or between hot and cold ; and in
this list of mild plant medicines, three only are
named — Mirtiis, or Sweet Gale, Ai-noglosa, or the
Plantain, and Bedegar. The way in which the name
is spelt, however, has baffled some investigators,
although it may be easily explained. The entry is
as follows : —

" Bedegrage.— ■S'//;;)! alba, Wit-thorn."
Wit-thorn of course is the same as White Thorn,
and simply translates Spina alba ; which in its turn
is a correct equivalent of Bedegar. When this
Arabic name became familiar to the Latin writers,
they treated it as a Latin word, and declined it as
the teacher says, so that sometimes it appeared as
Bedegaris ; and so it came in time to be written
Bedegrage by persons who wrote words according
to their sound, without knowing their meaning or
history. This curious mode of spelling opened the
way for still greater confusion, which was increased
by the custom of retaining the Arabic word "Al"
(as in algebra, alchemy, alkanet) before names
borrowed from that language. Thus I find our
family name written in the fifteenth century Albe-
deragi ! Who would have thought that Bedegar
could be so changed? Yet if we drop the "Al"
we shall find the remaining portion (Bederagi) is
exactly the same as Bedegrage, with just one letter
omitted. This slight change, however, has thrown
many a student off his guard, and even in the work

which contains the name Albederagi I find a little
later on another description of the same thing under
the accurately-written name of Bedegar. This con-
fusion of names is, by the way, only a small portion
of the confusion which has been introduced in
connection with the article itself, as we shall pire-
sently see. Let us, however, for a moment follow
the names which we used in English and French to
set forth the meaning of Spina alba or Bedegar to their
final resting-place. In France the early translation
of the name was Espine blanche, the latter word
meaning simply "white"; but when Acantha leuca
and Leucacanthon, Spina alba and Alba spina came
to be confused, the French adopted the term
Aubespine, as well as Espine blanche, and the English
spoke of the Albespyne, or White thorn, meaning no
longer the original White-thistle, but the Hawthorn
or Maybush ! All this is exceedingly curious, and
shows what difficulties the genealogist has to en-
counter and overcome in tracing out the real history
of a plant from modem, back to the earliest times.

Having in the foregoing study of my family history
shown to what changes the name Bedegar has been
liable, and to what different ideas its translation into
other tongues eventually gave rise, it is now
necessary that I should tell you of the other change
that was proceeding at the same time. It has been
shown that the seeds with their woolly appendage
or cottony pappus (the pappus is simply the calyx,
adapted to form a balloon for conveying the seed to
a distance), were the most valuable part of the plant
for medicinal purposes, and it is easy to suppose that
when these seeds could not be procured a substitute
with a similar nature and appearance would be intro-
duced, and called by the name which the genuine
article bore. I would not say that the herbalists of
the middle ages wilfully deceived people in this way,
though, from what I have read and heard about the
mandrake and other curious plants, I am sure they
were often capable of doing very mean things ; but
of this I am certain, that, somewhere about the
fifteenth century, the genuine article began to give
way to a spurious one, and Bedegar became the
name of something totally different from the white
thistle of early times. You may judge of the
surprise with which, after seeing the portrait of my
early ancestor already referred to, I one day came
across another portrait of Bedegar which had no
family resemblance to the former whatever. It
happened in this way. Many ages ago, there lived
(not at the same time however), two very famous
men named Theophrastus and Dioscorides, who
wrote some learned books on natural history. Some
centuries after, when printing was first employed for
the multiplication of books, the writings of these men
were presented to the public in both the Greek and
the Latin languages. Other students of nature,
inspired by these valuable but antiquated works,
undertook to follow up the investigations already

34

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

commenced, and when they found out any new fact
which either threw light upon the writings of the
early naturalists, or added something to that meagre
stock of information, they used their facts as com-
ments on, or explanations of, the writings of Theo-
phrastus and Dioscorides. In one edition of their
works we duly find the portrait of Bedegar as a
white thistle ; but in another this name stands also
over a sprig of oak, bearing a woolly gall ! The
commentator, it is true, tells us, when speaking of
Spina alba that it is called Bedeguard (this is the way
in which he spells it), but he is apparently quite
unable to see how the name has been transferred
from one medicinal article to another. Here, then,
we have, in a book published in 1644, the name
Bedegar applied to a gall on the oak, and at the same
time to a plant called Spina alba. The gall is
usurping the place of the seeds of thistle, and
appropriating its name. An old writer speaks of
the gall as a spongy growth or excrescence on the
oak. Since this growth is somewhat rare, however,
in many places on the oak, but very common on the
rose, it soon became the custom to speak of the rose-
gall as Bedegar ; and so thoroughly did the name
attach itself to this article in a short time that all the
books from the sixteenth century forward which
treat of medicines and herbs apply the term Bedegar
to the gall on the rose. I have only met with one
exception to this rule. The famous old herbalist,
Gerarde, earnestly protested, but in vain, against
this unjustifiable innovation. In his curious old
work, originally published towards the end of the
sixteenth century (1595), and brought out a little
later in a revised and emended form, he thus speaks
on this subject: "The spongie balls which are
found upon the branches (of the wild rose or
Eglantine), are most aptly and properly called
SpongioliC sylvestris Rosce^ or the little sponges of
the wild rose. The shops mistake it by the name of
Bedeguai- ; for Bedegiiar among the Arabians is a
kind of thistle, which is called in Greeke Akantha
lenke, that is to say Spina alba, or the white thistle,
not the white-thorn, though the word does import
so much." I certainly feel deeply indebted to this
faithful champion of our cause for so clearly pre-
senting our family claims and relationships ; but as
T have said, his protest was in vain ; for, from that
day to this, the " spongie balls " have still borne the
name of l^edegar. As Gerarde gives a figure of the
Eglantine bearing a gall (though he will not call it
Bedegar), I have now been able to examine three
portraits of my ancestors, and I cannot but feel
amazed at the change which has taken place. From
a thistle to a rose ; from Arabia to Great Britain ;
from a cottony seed to a " spongie ball " ! Fact is
indeed still stranger than fiction.

It will perhaps be expected that I should explain
what these spongy balls are, which, in modern
medicine, bear my ancient name. I turn to the

various works on medical botany which it has been
necessary for me to procure in order to write this
family history, and I find that all the most reliable
authorities tell the same story — the galls are pro-
duced by insects. True, one old writer says that
Bedegar is the name given to certain excrescences
which grow spontaneously on roses ; as though there
were no external cause, or they were quite indepen-
dently produced. Recent researches, however, shew
that these growths do not come by chance, but are
the regular outcome of certain well-known causes.
Thus we read in one recent work that "On various
species of the rose, perhaps most frequently on the
sweet-briar {R. riibigiitosa, L.) or eglantine, is found a
remarkable gall, called the sweet-briar sponge
(Bedeguar, or Fungus rosariim). Pliny terms it in
one place a little ball in another a sponge. It is
produced by the puncture of several insect species ;
viz., Cynips roscr, &c. The bedeguar is usually
rounded, but of variable size, sometimes being an
inch, or an inch and a half or more in diameter.
Externally it looks shaggy, or like a ball of moss,
being covered with moss-like, branching fibres,
which are at first green, but afterwards become
purple. The nucleus is composed principally of
cellular tissue with woody fibre ; and where the
fibres are attached bundles of spiral vessels are
observed. Internally, there are numerous cells, in
each of which is the larva of an insect (usually called
a maggot) ; and if opened about August or Sep-
tember maggots (or larva:) are generally found
within. It is inodorous, or nearly so ; its taste is
slightly astringent, and it colours the saliva
brownish. Dried and powdered it was formerly
given in doses of from ten to forty grains. More
recently itj has been recommended as a remedy
against toothache. Pliny says the ashes mixed with
honey were jUsed as a liniment for baldness. In
another place he speaks of the gall being mixed with
bear's grease for the same purpose." I have purposely
omitted from the foregoing, certain medical and
scientific terms, in order that the extract might be
more intelligible to my readers ; and must request
them to be content with this paragraph, as a sample
of the whole matter to be found in other medical
works.

I have thus briefly, but as clearly as I was able,
traced my family history from the earliest to the
most modern times ; and now in a few words, in
order that the whole matter may be perfectly under-
stood by the reader, I will give a summary of the
result. The name Bedegar is of Semitic origin, and
comes from a word Dakar meaning "to stab."
From the verb we get the noun Deker "the
stabber " (i Kings iv. 9), then by adding Ben we
obtain Ben-deker, Bed-deker or Bidekar (2 Kings ix.
25), meaning " the son of the stabber," or " the
little stabber." This name was in the course of time
applied to a spinous plant, and hence a thistle was

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-G OSSIF.

35

known by the Arabs as Bedegar. This thistle, or
certain portions of it, entered the ancient pharmaco-
pseia or medicine list, then was carried to Greece,
Italy, Germany and England where the name was
still retained, along with its equivalent in the
languages of those lands, as Akantha, Spina, Distel or
Thistle. In course of time, however, the term was
appropriated (about the fifteenth or sixteenth century)
to another article, viz, an insect gall, and thus in the
end the spongy balls on the wild rose came to be
regularly known under the Arabic name of Bedegar,
or the little stabber.
Idle, Bradford.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
BRITISH DIPTERA.

By E. Brunetti.

I. INTRODUCTION.

T T will be my endeavour in the following papers to
-*■ give an outline of the British Diptera.

Twenty years ago, but little was known respecting
this order, but the labours of Messrs. Verrall, Meade,
Dale (and, in a lesser degree, other entomologists),
have resulted in rich collections of these insects,
and with the material at present available, we may
venture to speak with some approach to accuracy of
the species of Diptera indigenous to the British
Islands.

Mr. Verrall's recently-published list {1888) forms a
splendid foundation for our researches, and the
student, I trust, will find the following remarks of
assistance to him during his preliminary investiga-
tions and first collecting excursions.

On the Continent the Diptera are tolerably well
known and the fact of our knowledge of the British
species being so unsatisfactory should be a greater
incentive to the true entomologist, as the order offers
far more opportunities of rendering real service to
science than do either the Lepidoptera or Coleoptera.
It is true that students have few incentives to take
up the study of the Diptera, as the disadvantages are
so numerous ; collections being few and far between,
and usually the property of private individuals. The
national collection of these insects is in a highly
unsatisfactory state, for the very simple reason that
no one has been employed to bring it anywhere near
up to date ; to correct the numerous and most
palpable blunders in nomenclature ; to fill up any of
the large gaps made by the absence of whole genera,
as well as numbers of the most common species ; or
to replace by fresh specimens the old damaged and
dirty ones that do duty as the National British
Collection.

Although collections available for reference, and
books are so scarce, there are now fortunately
several workers at this group who are fairly well
acquainted with the order, and who, as a rule, are

very ready, leisure permitting, to assist beginners by
naming their captures ; I myself being most happy to
help collectors in this manner, provided the speci-
mens sent for identification be in good condition.

1. COLLECTING.
Diptera, to put it shortly, may be captured in
every part of the country in tolerable abundance, in
almost every conceivable nature of habitat, dis-
appearing only during the very coldest weeks, and
even in mid-winter certain species (generally
Nematocera) may be obtained by those who know
where to look for them.

The ordinary gauze butterfly net is most useful for
capturing them, and the sweeping net for those
inhabiting the borders of streams, dry ditches, long
grass, banks and other similar habitats.

As most flies rise, when alarmed, with great
rapidity, a short quick stroke is necessary to capture
them, a second opportunity rarely being afforded.
It has been computed that certain species rise with a
velocity of twelve feet a second.

As many groups and certain genera have a special
manner of their own of taking flight, and of behaving
when on the wing, it is of invaluable assistance when
the collector is able to recognise at sight the family
to which the intended capture belongs.

In sweeping, much discretion and experience is
necessary, as the net rapidly fills with twigs, leaves,
larvae, beetles and spiders, these latter being the
bugbear of the collector whilst sweeping, as they
spin up the contents of the net (which I transfer
bodily into large chip boxes, to be sorted out at
home) into a tangled, unrecognisable mass, besides
devouring a large proportion of the Diptera captured.
Larger species have to be captured singly and
transferred to glass-top boxes, into each of which the
collector with a little manipulation and experience
should be able to place a dozen ; care being taken
to keep the carnivorous species separate (as Empis,
Leptis, &c.) or one finds on reaching home, perhaps,
every specimen more or less eaten.

Species in which the legs are exceptionally brittle
and break off easily, should be given separate boxes,
if possible i^AnthoJuyidic, lipuUdic, Dolichopidce, <S:c.),
or at most only two or three specimens placed in
each box.

Whenever the opportunity occurs, take a long
series of a species, as by this means varieties may be
obtained and the limits of specific variation fixed.

If a note-book of captures is kept, it will be found
of invaluable assistance during subsequent seasons,
and this plan should be adopted by all who desire
doing anything of value towards completing our
knowledge of the order.

3. PRESERVING.

Diptera should invariably be brought home alive,
and killed by the fumes of burning sulphur. I am

36

MARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSJF.

opposed to any method that wets them, as it mats the
pubescence and frequently prevents indentification.

For mounting, I recommend the long Carlsbad
pins, of which Nos. o to 4 are the most useful ; the
very minute species being pinned with the " minutien
Nadeln," German pins, which are then stuck at one
end of a small oblong piece of white pith, a Carlsbad
No. 4 pin being put through the other end, and the
pith pushed half way up the long pin. (See
diagrams.)

The larger specimens should be placed above the
middle of the pin, which should pierce the centre of
the thorax.

I adopt the long pins for the following reasons :

I. The specimens are exchangeable with conti-

Fig. 13.— Methods of mounting Diptera.

nental correspondents, all of whom adopt this method
of pinning.

2. They are easier to handle and therefore less
liable to accident.

3. They allow a higher magnifying power to be
brought to bear on them when in the cabinet by
being nearer the glass.

A second important point to be observed in
mounting is not to set the flies. They are as useful
for scientific purposes unset as set, they are easier to
handle, less liable to accidents, exchangeable abroad,
and by not setting them a vast amount of time is
saved.

I am aware that, on this point my opinion is
directly opposite to that of our leading dipterologist,
but still see no reason to change it, as it is only in
exceptional instances that unset specimens cannot be
identified, provided the directions given below are
followed.

So long as the wings are extended vertically (and
not allowed to cling together) and the. legs kept from
folding up close under the thorax, there is no difficulty
in naming them, which is the chief objection raised
by those who insist on the necessity of setting.

Their second plea — lack of uniformity in unset
specimens — appears unsupportable, as a collection of
Diptera pinned in the continental style seems to me
as' uniform and elegant as one in which the legs
and wings are extended after the fashion of setting
Lepidoptera. Moreover much cabinet space is saved
by not setting them.

Every specimen should be dated and localised
with a ticket attached to the pin below the insect.

Specimens may be relaxed by placing them in

laurel, and for preservation against mites when in
the cabinet, naphthaline is' most frequently used by
continental authorities, it being almost unnecessary to
add that the cabinet should be kept in a warm dry
room.

4. CLASSIFICATION.

Hardly any author's classification can be con-
sidered a standard one, the order having undergone
such important revision during the last twenty years.

Several of the older authors, owing to their in-
complete knowledge of the order, added altogether
to our lists some hundreds of species that have no
right to a place there.

Moses Harris was the first to write on the British
diptera, and relied chiefly on the neuration as a basis
of classification.

Curtis' work (1823-40) gives 112 really excellent
coloured plates, and notices many species that he
does not illustrate ; his generic descriptions also
being complete, and, in the main, trustworthy ; but
no attempt is made at analytical tables of genera or
species, and many of the introduced species are now
repudiated.

In Walker's work (1851-56), about 2CXX) species
are described, though scores (I might almost say
hundreds) of these descriptions are worthless. His
work, however, is a most useful one to have, as a
good general knowledge of the order can undoubtedly
be obtained from it.

His analytical tables are not always g«od. He
divides the order into three great groups, as fol-
lows : —

Antennae lying flat in cavities in the head : Suctoridea

{PulicidcE).
Antennae seated on the front of the head.

Legs at juncture with thorax close together : Pra-

boscidea.
Legs at juncture with thorax wide apart : Eproboscidea.

His table of families is unsatisfactory, inasmuch as
two families (Empidtt and Muscidce) are split up and
fall in both his subdivisions q{ Brachycera.

He divides the Proboscidea as follows : —

Antennae with distinct joints, at least six, usually more

than 10 : Neinocera.
Antennae, three to ten jointed, after the third closely
jointed.

Posterior veins branched or interlacing : Brachycera.
Posterior veins simple, detached, faint : Hyfocera
[Phorida:).

He gives nine families of Nemocera, seventeen of
Brachycera y and two oi Eproboscidea.

Books on this order are few and costly, the follow-
ing being the principal ones relating to British
Diptera :— Moses Harris, "Exposition of British
Insects," 1776-1782. Curtis, " British Entomology,"'
1823-1840. F. Walker, " Insecta Britannica : Dip-
tera," 1S51-1856. Rev. F. O. Morris, "Catalogue
of British Diptera," 1865. G. H. Verrall, "List of
British Diptera," 1SS8.

No student should be without Mr. Verrall's list.

HA RD WJCKE' S SCIENCE- GOSSIP.

37

The most reliable recent papers are as follows : —
" Bnthh Sanophaga," Meade, " Ent. Month. Mag."
1876. "Annotated List of British Anthomyidu,''''

Tabanid<£" (with tables and notes), Brunetti,
Science-Gossip, 1887. " List of British ZJ/^^^ra,"
Verrall, Pratt & Co., 1888. "List of British

Fig 14.

Fig- IS-

Fig. 16.

^^

Fig. 17.

Fig. iS.

Fig. 19.

'Ig. iO.

Fig. 21.

Fig. 22.

K-H

Fig. 23.

Fig. 24.

Fig. 25.

Fig. 26.

Diagram showing classificatory structure of Wings of Diptera : — Fig. 14, Cecidamyia; Fig. 15, Hortnomyia • Fig. 16, Sciaria ;
Fig. 17, Mycetophila ; Fig. 18, Scatopse ; Fig. 19, Bibio ; Fig. 20, Diplosis ; Fig. 21, Simulium; Fig. 22, Glaphyroptera ;
Fig. 23, Chinotiomus ; Fig. 24, Psychoda; Fig. 25, Pericoma ; Fig. 26, Rhyphus. Note.— All these wings are, of course,
magnified, as shown by comparative measurements thus i-hH .

Meade, "Ent. Month. Mag." 1881. "List of
British TipuUda: " (with tables and notes), Verrall,
"Ent. Month Mag." 1886. "List of British

Stratiomyidtt" (with tables and notes), Brunetti,
" Entomologist," 1889,
The best works on European Diptera are the

38

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IF.

following: — Mergen's " Systematische Beschrei-
^""g»" 5 vols. 1818-1838, Germany. Macquart,
"Diptcres," 2 vols. 1S34-1835, France. Zetterstedt,
"Diptera Scandinavia," 14 vols. 1842-1860, Scan-
dinavia. Rondani, " Diptera Italicce," 7 vols. 1856-
1871, Italy. Schiner, "Fauna Austriaca," 2 vols.
1862-1864, Austria. Desvoidy, "Dipteres des
Environs de Paris," 2 vols. 1863, France.

The only catalogue of European Diptera is that by
Schiner, published in 1864, giving about 670 genera,
and 8600 species as European.

Schiner and Loew are, perhaps, the best recent
Continental writers, and as no linear arrangement of
families (entirely consistent with the structural
characteristics of the various families) is possible, I
shall adopt the sequence of Mr. Verrall in his lately
published list as being the best and most recent
authority on British Diptera.

Schiner (1862) gave a large quantity of introductory
matter relating to the structure of the Diptera, but
in his table of Brachycera families he, as Walker did,
makes some families {Etnpidcc, Dolichopida:^ and
Conopida:) fall in both his primary divisions — which
appears to me very undesirable ; though I must add
that I cannot myself suggest any table of families
which shall be flawless in this respect.

In 1864 Schiner proposed dividing the Diptera
into two great divisions — OrtJiorkap/ia, in which the
pupa is sometimes coarctate, but in all cases the
larva skin is slit longitudinally in the dorsal portion
to give exit to the pupa or perfect insect ; and
Cyclorhapha, in which the pupa is always coarctate,
the perfect insect escaping by throwing off a sort of
lid at one end of the dried larva skin which forms the
cocoon.

In the same year Lioy submitted another classifi-
cation.

Schiner, in 1864, estimated the described species
of Diptera at about 19,449, distributed as follows : —
Europe, 8670 ; Asia, 2046 ; Africa, 1644 ;
America, 5517; Australia, 1056; of unknown
locality, 516.

In 1868, the " Zoological Record" considered over
20,800 species had been described.

Brauer's classification, in 1869, was on larval cha-
racters : —

Orlhorhapha:—

Nematocera, three groups (twelve families).
Brachycera, three groups (fourteen families).

Cyclorhapha: —
T Proboscidea :

Group I, SyrphidcE.

Group 2, MiiscidtE (including ConopiiUc, Plp7inciiUdce,
and Platypezidce as divisions of Miiscida).

Eproboscidea :

Hippoboscidce and Nycteribiidw.

In 1878, Osten Sacken produced another new
arrangement of groups and families : —

I. Oithorhapha. — He does not subdivide these
further than into families (most of these are the

families of Brachycera and Nematocera, given in this
paper).

2. Cyclorhapha. — Syrphidcc, Conopida:, PlatypczidtVy
Piptmcidida:, Oestridic, JlliiscidiC (he raises all mj' six
sub-families of Miiscida:, and all the groups of
Acalypterata, to the rank of families), Phoridcc.

3. Pupipara. — ITippoboscidic, Aycterilnidic.

I have not adopted either Schiner's or Brauer's
latest systems ; as, in a paper intended specially for
beginners (as this is), it appears to me the tables
should be based on characters of the perfect insect,
not on those of the larva or pupa, with which the
student probably would not be familiar. At the
same time, I fully recognise that the structure of the
pupa case is of the highest importance in classifying
the Diptera.

5. DESCRIPTIONS AND TABLES.

In the Diptera the mouth is suctorial, the proboscis
usually being rather long ; there are two maxillary
palpi ; the thorax is compact, the pro-thorax and
meta-thorax being very short, and the meso-thorax

Fig. 27. — AA, costal vein, i, first longitudinal vein (often
double) ; 2, second ditto ; 3, third ditto ; 4, fourth ditto ;
5, fifth ditto ; 6, sixth ditto, or anal vein ; 7, axillary vein ;
w, internal transverse vein ; I,, external ditto ; aa, costal
cells ; b, marginal cell ; c, submarginal cell : d, first posterior
cell ; (', second ditto ; /, third ditto ; g, discoidal cell ;
hhh, basal cells ; x, costal spine (often absent).

much enlarged ; forming the greater part of the
thorax ; the scutellum is rather large ; the abdomen
is usually formed of from five to seven segments ; the
wings are two in number, the posterior pair being
replaced by alulje, and a pair of filimentary appen-
dages, clubbed at the tip, known as halteres ; the
legs vary greatly in size and length, the tarsi being
pentamerous.

The Pidicidit: (fleas) do not appear to me to be true
Diptera ; so, although Mr. Verrall includes them in
his list, I have eUminated them, as does Schiner irv
his "Fauna Austriaca." I may observe, however,
that three genera and thirteen species are British.

The wing of one of the Anthomyidcc is given, with
the terminology adopted by Dr. Meade and other
British authorities (after Loew). It is exceedingly
unfortunate that there exists such a diversity of
opinion in the matter of terminology.

It is manifestly quite impossible, in the limited
space at my disposal, to give more than a bare outline
of the characteristics of each family, and a brief de-

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSS/P.

39

scription of a few of the commonest species. Analy-
tical tables of all the genera are out of the question :
but I shall insert as many as possible, and these,
with the plates of wings, will be found quite sufficient
to enable the student, after a little study, to recognise
all the families, and the greater number of the prin-
cipal genera. In the small crosses, representing the
natural size of wings given in the plates, allowance
must be made for slight variation in the size in the
■tlifferent species.

The tables are intended to apply to the British
genera only, and are compiled with a view to render
the determination of sub-families and genera as easy
as possible ; and they may not always be the best
from a strictly scientific point of view. The descrip-
tions are purposely abbreviated as much as possible
to save space.

(To ie continued. )

DUCKING: A LINCOLNSHIRE SKETCH.
By Gregory O. Benoni.

\_Contin-uedfrotii p. i8.]

AX amusing sight it is to the naturalist to see the
bright-eyed speckled breast at his work, his
legs straddling wide apart with exertion, and his
whole being bent on the business in hand. He runs
his beak into the soft body of the snail, and begins to
hammer, rap-a-tap-tap, till it escapes from his hold.
Then he hops round a while in reflection, wags his
tail, and takes his rest with his head cocked to one
side, and his gaze fixed on the dainty morsel enclosed
in the protecting shell. When he has quite recovered
his breath be "goes for it " again, this time with his
"nib" thrust through a crack in the shell, which
soon flies to fragments under repeated blows, and
discloses the coveted treasure.

But this is not ducking, though we are almost
within sight of the decoy, and the master-ducker is
hastening down the path to meet us, with a " God
bless you, squire, I'm right glad to see you and your
friends ; " an assertion fully in harmony with the
beaming expression of his weather-beaten counte-
nance, and the eagerness of his movements. To our
inquiries whether we might see the ducks taken, and
what kind of day might be expected, he answered
with a wink of extreme satisfaction, as he swung his
left arm towards the pond ; " First rate, squire, first
rate ducking-day, five thousan' i' th' 'coy if there's a
score, I'll awarran'."

After a few more words relative to the splendid
weather we were having for what he maintained to
be the finest of sports — certainly it does require
great caution and intentness — our entertainer con-
ducted us through a young plantation of birch and
ash, bidding us speak in undertones lest the ducks
should hear us, and finally commanded us to observe
perfect silence. He then vanished into a shed, and
returned with a basket of hemp-seed, and some

morsels of bread for the decoy-dog who now appeared
following its master. It was a dog of the ordinary
north of England shepherd type, half coUey and half
bob-tail, but worth a "fo'tin" to its owner notwith-
standing its unassuming exterior.

Accompanied by this new addition to our party,
we soon found ourselves close to the decoy, a circular
sheet of water, four acres in extent, which had been
made by deeping the natural hollow between two
"hoes" or sand-hills, heaping up the soil thus
gained round the edge of the pool, and supplying it
with water from a drain connected with the Trent,
A pipe, or gradually narrowing canal a hundred
yards long runs out from the pond towards each of
the cardinal points, curving to the right as it recedes,
so that the birds on the main-water, or at the
entrance of the pipe itself, cannot see more than
half-way along its channel. Over the entire length
of each pipe is a semi-circular iron frame supporting
a net with a mesh of two inches, high in proportion
where the ditch is wide, and contracting by degrees
till it ends in a tunnel-net kept open by iron rings,
and removable at pleasure. On the left side of each
pipe runs a high fence, formed of a series of reed
screens, so placed that the head of one is somewhat
behind the end of the next, and only connected with
it by a low stile or dog-leap, over which the observer
can look straight up the pipe.

Wild fowl are so continually on the alert, and have
such exquisite senses of sight and smell, that they
can only be approached under cover from the lee-
ward ; woe betide the sportsman in the open fens,
who believes himself to be getting within range of his
game after hours of wary stalking, if the wind veer
but a few points and blow from him to his would-be
quarry — in the twinkling of an eye the birds take
wing, and he is left to console himself with the
thoughts of what might have been, if his fortune had
proved equal to his endeavours.

The pipes of the decoymen are purposely so
arranged that two can always be used at a time when
the wind will blow steadily from one quarter. But
the breeze must be constantly watched for fear that a
sudden change should inform the ducks of their
danger, and cause a sudden " rising," when mallard,
teal, shoveller and pintail will disappear, leaving the
common enemy to duckless and luckless lamentation.

While we were still some two hundred yards away
our ears had become aware of unusual sounds, but
no\y we were within a few feet of the water, the cry,
quack, whistle, and cough of strange and unknown
birds became most exciting. Initiated by the sign
language of the decoymen, we placed ourselves at
squints, or peeping-holes, formed by thrusting short
sticks through the reed fence, but not before our
long-limbed cockney friend, whose curiosity got the
better of his discretion necessary on such an occasion,
made our worthy instructor forget himself and his
betters, by an attempt to look over the screen into

40

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

the pond. When we were fairly settled in our places
we beheld a sight never to be forgotten. There on
the water close before us were thousands of lovely
birds in their most perfect winter plumage, splashing,
diving, musing, sleeping, or unconcernedly pruning
their feathers, as if they were on some island of the
Arctic Sea untrodden by the foot of man. Teal,
pochard, widgeon, shoveller, gadwell, mallard, and
I know not what — for time failed to observe the
minute details of the wonderful scene — were sporting
before us, the very embodiment of grace, or sunning
themselves on the water's edge. One pair of
mallards were performing the ingenious and pretty
feat of swimming round one another, and making a
circuit of the pond at the same time, — as astronomers
tell us that some twin stars move through space.
The air reverberated with constant cries, which
apparently had their source in the jealousy of an
unusual number of drakes ; and the sound of many
wings broke ceaselessly on the ear.

We had gazed for some time in wonder and admira-
tion, when the old " ducker " joined us, delighted to
observe what pleasure his unusual show was giving.
For although we had often watched the fowl before,
it had never been our lot to see such numbers of
common wild-duck, or so many rare birds on the
pool together.

" Now did ye ever see sich a sight o' ducks ony-
wheare in your life ? Why, I tell ye, ye wouldn't
see it in England, nor in the world, I'm thinkin'," he
whispered, as he mopped the perspiration from his
forehead with heavy dabs from a heavy silk pocket-
handkerchief.

" Well, it is a splendid sight, and such a one as we
have never seen before," we replied, in the same
scarcely audible speech he himself used.

" A splendid sight," drawing back, and holding
out his hand, as if our qualifying adjective had not
been strong enough ; then, nearing again, so as to
allow his ghost -like voice to reach us, " I've had
gentlemen in days gone by who would have come
three hunded miles to see such a vast o' em in at once.
My governor" — his old employer — ** would ha' had
all his fine friends here, if he'd been alive, he would."

The work of capture now began. The boy donned
a bright red flannel vest, and stationed himself
behind the first "shooting" or screen, lying flat on
the ground, and hidden from any ducks which might
enter the pipe by the low connecting stile. His
grandfather then threw a piece of bread over it on to
the strip of land between the " shooting " and the
water's edge, and the dog immediately bounded after
it and returned by the second stile, though not before
the ever-observant ducks, on the near side of the
pond, had noticed his presence.

The whole decoy was on the alert for danger at
once. The birds on the shore took refuge in the
water, those which were swimming stopped for a time,
and all eyes watched for the unknown apparition

to present itself again. The dog leaped several times
over the first stile, returning by the second, then
over the second and back by the third, and so on,
retreating gradually, every fowl regarding the perform-
ance with fear, wonder, and curiosity combined. Yet
as he made no attempt to injure them, but moved slowly
away up the pipe, they presently fell back on their
ordinary sense of security, and began to sleep, dive,
and coquet again. The fatal desire to increase their
stock of available knowledge — the bane of other than
feathered victims — evidently over-mastered the
prudence of a score or two of birds. They began to
follow the mysterious object in its retreat, hesitating
some time at the mouth of the pipe, swimming this
way and that, straining their necks, and turning their
bright eyes hither and thither, in a vain effort to
learn the meaning of the overhanging net, or tO'
watch the dog passing out of view round the bend in
the pipe. The bolder ones entered when the dog
disappeared, followed by their more cautious com-
panions, though some few retired discreetly at the
last moment. Under the net they sailed, unconscious
of the meaning of the treacherous meshes above them,
till, at a given signal from the decoy-man, the red-
vested lad leapt to his feet and showed himself over
the stile in their rear.

The effect was magical. The shy explorers took
wing together without a cry or warning to those left
behind, and not daring to face the foe, fly forwards,
catching sight of each of us in turn as they pass the
stile of the screen through which we are watching.
Dashing through the water in mad fear, or beating
their wings against the imprisoning net, only to be
thrown back to their native element again, they
reached the end of the pipe and entered the circular
net prepared for them, which the decoy-man re-
moved as soon as the last of the " take " had passed
into its jaws.

Now came the poor sport of the show — the killing-
This was performed by the expert placing his fingers
over the beak, the thumb over the first joint of the
neck, and then giving the head a backward jerk to
the right side of the neck, which caused the immediate
dislocation. Painless enough as deaths go, but an in-
glorious ending for the freedom-loving mallard and teal.

The whole affair was a dumb-show of a few
minutes' duration. Not a single word was uttered
aloud till the decoy -man had killed and counted
twenty-eight birds. Then, wiping his brow with the
sleeve of his coat, he said, with a grin of satisfaction,
' ' Fust-rate sport. Squire ; your friends never saw owt
like this before, nor never will again."

This mode of taking wild-fowl is called "working
them " by professional duckers ; but it is more
commonly known on paper as the "dog-decoy." It
is often productive of a fair take, especially of birds
fresh from the north, but it is far surpassed by the
" duck-decoy " now to be described.
{To be continued.)

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

4E

FLIES IX AMBER.

OUR lady friends and readers perhaps know more
about the aesthetic merits of amber than we
do. They (and those of their gentlemen friends who
like their amber clouded in the mouthpieces of their
expensive meerschaums) may not, however, be so
familiar with its geological and mineralogical origin
as other people. Seaside visitors to the eastern
coasts frequently find it worth their while to come
from great distances and pay very expensive prices
for lodgings in the summer time in order to stroll
upon the beach, if haply they may pick up three half-
penny worth of amber between dinner and tea.
Amber has very nearly the specific gravity of sea-
water, and, if it does not float, is easily drifted along
from the Baltic to our eastern coast, but many
splendid specimens are picked up along the seaward
margin of the Eastern counties. A magnificent
collection of specimens of amber, which floated
hitherwards from its parent bed, is now in the
possession of Mr. W, D. Sims, of Ipswich.

Many people may neither know nor care to know
that amber is a fossil gum which exuded from pines
and other trees two millions of years ago. They
may not be acquainted with the fact that the great
storehouse of genuine amber, not the artificial muck
the youngest smoker admires and proudly displays,
comes from the bed of the Baltic Sea, and frequently
contains the remains of various kinds of insects,
which lived here during the middle period, as well as
leaves, petals of flowers, and other floral organs, just as
another Tertiary formation shows. This is neverthe-
less correct ; and a bit of genuine amber in the lump
is a most interesting geological specimen — fVequently
a perfect nest of fossilised flies which were attracted
to the amber when it was a sweet and liquidly-
flowing gum, and then and there got entangled in it
as summer-flies in treacle, so as to suggest the poet's
conundrum that —

The thing itself is neither rich nor rare.
The wonder's how the devil they got there.

In the last number but one of the "Annals and
Magazines of Natural History " there is a paper by
Herr Richard Klebs, of Konigsberg, on "The Fauna
of Amber." The metropolis of the genuine Baltic
trade is at Konigsberg, so there is ample opportunity
for the professor to study an abundance of specimens.
He has been engaged twelve years on this special
subject, during which, he tells us, several hundred
thousand species of amber passed through his hands,
and of these he has arranged and catalogued about
25,000 selected specimens. In addition to the
Konigsberg collection, Mr. Klebs selected, arranged,
and catalogued another belonging to the Prussian
Government, containing 12,000 specimens of amber.
Only those familiar with the slow and tedious
(although delightful) process of classificatory

arrangement know what trouble and pains all this
involved.

Mr. Klebs (to sum up a long and necessarily
technically abtruse paper — all the more scientifically
valuable on that account) is able largely to contribute
to our entomological knowledge the evolution of
many modern groups of insects. In amber, for
instance, are found kinds which are intermediate
between gnats and the brachypterous, or short-winged-
flies. Perhaps we know more of the early history of
those highly-celebrated insects, the ants, from their
fossilised appearance in amber than from any other
contributing geological source. Among the fossil'
insects imprisoned in amber, we learn that the two-
winged flies, of which our too-attentive house-fly is a
familiar example (Diptera), is most numerous!)-
represented. It always has been, even before the
days of "fly-papers." Mr. Klebs has made the
acquaintance of 20,000 of them in amber alone.
What a geological immortality ! It is pleasant to-
find that fossil-lice are not numerous in amber —
they reser\-ed their numerical abundance to a later
stage of the Tertiary period. Gnats and mosquitoes
also " lay low " during the Miocene epoch. Those
filmy-winged, flower-evolving insects (Hymenoptera)"
are very frequently found in amber. What a life-
history is theirs ! If only some accurate and true
scientific entomologist arise — a prophet who had
knowledge enough to gaze from the top of Pisgah,
not only from the presentment of the Promised Land,
but on the " backward track " (Phylogeny) of the forty
years' wanderings in the wilderness ! Professor Klebs'
paper is practically all this and more. Among his studies
of fossilised amber are 4000 enclosed beetles, 5000
members of the Neuroptera (or white ant and dragon-
fly family), 2500 specimens of Orthoptera (cock-
roaches, crickets, locusts, earwigs), and lastly
Mantido (or leaf-insects). The reader would hardly
imagine that the amber specimens include more than
one thousand sorts of butterflies and moths. Then
come fossil amber bugs, plant-lice, or aphides (wh:>
would imagine the latter were living millions of years
before men and women ?). Centipedes, "saw-flies,"
spiders (2500 specimens) are found in amber ; they
came after the flies, just as the flies were after the
sweet gum, and shared the same glorious fate ana
immortality. A few land-snails are also found,
thanks to their sluggish habits. There is sometime-
the feather of a bird, the scales of a lizard, and other
odds and ends. But what a recording angel a lump
of amber may be, and what a host of important
suggestions hang to and cluster by the above matter-
of-fact discoveries !

J. E. Taylor.

Mr. C. H. H. Walker, 12 Church Street, Liver-
pool, has constructed a new slide cabinet, made
more especially for biological and medical students,
and issued, post free, at 4^. 6(/.

42

HA RD WJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Recently a baby seal was bom in the Blackpool
Aquarium. It is said to be the first seal born in this
■country in captivity. Unfortunately it was still-
born ; had it lived, the value of the event would have
been still greater to the company. But, as it is, the
•occurrence is one well worthy of note on account of
its " uniqueness."

It is with much sadness we have to record the
death of an eminent scientist and occasional con-
tributor, Dr. James Croll, author of " Climate and
Time," "Stellar Evolution," &c. Dr. Croll rose
.from being janitor at Glasgow University to being an
Jlon. LL.D. of the same.

Anybody desiring to know the history and
■botanical associations of that popular flower the
carnation, should read Mr. F. N. William's paper in
•'•The Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society"
.(Part 3, vol. xii.), entitled "The Carnation from a
Botanical Point of View."

A USEFUL contribution to the wants of book-
seekers and collectors is the last published catalogue
of Messrs. Doulan & Co., relating to " Zoological
• and Palaeontogical Works " offered for sale by this
well-known firm. A new periodical has recently been
issued, entitled "The Entomologist's Record and
Journal of Variation."

" The International Journal " is now the proud
name given to the alliance of the ancient journals en-
titled " Wesley Naturalists' Societies," and "Postal
Microsopical Society." Both did good and honour-
able work ; but the Philistines are usually opposed
to Samson ! Now we cordially recommend to our
.readers the first part of a New Series : " The Inter-
national Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science ;
The Postal Microscopical and Wesley Naturalists'
Societies' Journals," price 6(/., edited by Alfred Allen,
and the Rev. W. Spiers (London : Bailliere, Tindall
& Co.).

We are glad to draw the attention of our readers
ito the recently published Catalogue of Messrs. Dulau
.& Co., 37, Soho Square, London, devoted to general
Zoology and Palaeontology.

The Literary and Philosophical Club, 28 Berkeley
Square, Bristol, was formally opened on January ist.
Nearly five hundred members have already joined,
and it is to be hoped that the club will become a
literary and scientific centre for Bristol and its neigh-
bourhood. Public lectures will be given at intervals
under the auspices of the club. The first President
is Mr. Lewis Fry, M.P., and Mr. Henry A. Francis
holds the office of Honorary Secretary.

Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. have just
ipublished a cheap and excellent and highly useful

pamphlet, written by Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, en-
titled, "The British Naturalist Catalogue of the
Land and Freshwater Mollusca of the British Isles,
with all the Named Varieties."

Messrs. Wesley & Son's last Natural History
Circular is devoted chiefly to works and papers on
Mollusca and Molluscoidea.

Mr. R. G. Mason has just brought out a cheap
and useful, as well as highly ingenious combination
of a lantern with a microscope. The combination
enables the lecturer to exhibit microscopic objects to
an audience. The combination can be easily dis-
severed, and the microscope used as such in the
ordinary fashion.

At the beginning of February perhaps the most
important sale of high-class natural history books
which has occurred for many years, is announced to
take place at Messrs. Hodgson's Literary Sale Rooms,
which many of our readers would like to be informed
about. Catalogues can be obtained of Mr. W. P.
Collins, 157 Great Portland Street, London. The
collection is stated to be rich in sets of scientific
journals, such as Journals and Transactions of the
Linnsean and Microscopical Societies, " Annals and
Magazine of Natural History," "Archiv. fur Mikro-
skopische Anatomic," "American Naturalist," and
many other valuable English and foreign serials.
The collection of separate monographs is particularly
rich in microscopy, entomology, invertebrate zoology
generally, and botany. There is also a large collec-
tion of pamphlets covering every branch of natural
science, classified and arranged according to subjects.
The Polyzoa, Protozoa, Arachnida, &c., are said to
be very complete.

MICROSCOPY.

The Vertical Ca^mera. — I infer from Mr.
Simmons' description of his instrument (SciENCE-
GossiP, Jan. 1891), that it; is the Zeiss camera lucida
which he refers to, and as I have used this apparatus
successfully for some time, perhaps I can give him
some little assistance. In the ordinary camera
lucidas the object to be drawn is projected upon the
paper which lies behind the microscope, the instru-
ment being placed in a horizontal position. In the
Zeiss camera, however, the image of the paper is
thrown upon the_ stage of the microscope, and the
object appears to be lying upon the paper, so that
tlie drawing can be made with ease as the pencil
appears to be upon the actual object instead of
following a projected image of it. The neutral tint
reflectors, Wollaston and other forms of cameras, re-
quire the microscope in a horizontal position, and the
eye looks straight downwards upon the drawing-paper;
the worst position for head and eye, and the most
uncomfortable that can be assumed. But with the

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

Zeiss instrument the microscope may be at any chosen
angle, and this is where its greatest advantage hes.
In working, I use a small drawing-board, made so
that it can be arranged at any angle. Setting the
microscope with the tube at about 45°, I place the
drawing-board on the right hand side, level with and
on the same plane as the microscope stage, and the
paper placed directly under the centre line of the
mirror attached to the camera. The following points
should be attended to : (i) The angle of the drawing-
board should be exactly the same as that of the
microscope stage, and the centre of the drawing
should be under the centre line of the camera mirror,
otherwise there will be distortions in the drawings, as
Mr. Simmons found, and the picture will be out of
proportion. (2) The drawing should be on a level
with the microscope stage, that is, the distance
between the camera mirror and- the drawing paper
should be the same as between- the eye-piece of the
stage, if the magnification is required to be the same
in drawing as under the microscope. (3) The light on
the object and that on the drawing-paper should, in
neither case, be so bright or so dull that one obcures
the other, or either the paper will be too dark and
the pencil point lost, or in the other case, the paper
will be so illuminated that the object will disappear
altogether. A little practice will, however, soon
enable the respective lights to be arrived at easily ;
that upon the stage being modified in the usual way
from the lamp, and that upon the paper by means of
the neutral tint glasses supplied with the camera
lucida. I have found that blackening the pencil
point enables its being more easily seen against the
white paper. — M. L. Syhes, Patricroft.

Pocket-Lens. — Would some reader kindly tell
me how I can ascertain the magnifying power of a
single (pocket) lens ? When I place it upon an
object, I want to know how many times that object
is magnified ? — W. F. Kehey, Maldon.

Mounting Cochineal Insects.— There is one
thing I should like to draw attention to, and that is
the mounting of sections (cochineal) so as to show
the little purple granules, ' containing the colouring
matter. I have tried nearly every kind of liquid, but
find that in every case the colour is extracted and
mingled with the fluid, thus ruining the specimens
at once. The' only thing I find I can use is turpentine,
which preserves them splendidly, but the puzzle is
what cement can be used to contain the turpentine ?
Perhaps some correspondents could give hints con-
cerning this, which I think would prove useful to
others as well as myself. — If. Durrani.

Land and Freshwater Shells. — Will any
Conchological readers of Science-Gossip kindly
oblige with particulars of the distribution of the
MoUusca in the home counties? Is there any pub-
lished list obtainable?— C/5a;7t'j/'a««a//, Junr., East
Street, Haslemerc.

ZOOLOGY.

The "Proceedings" of the Liverpool Geological
Society contain the following addresses and papers : —
By the President, "On the Life of the English
Trias"; "Notes on the Geological Excursion to
Anglesey," by T. M. Reade ; "Glacial iVIoraines,"
by L. Gumming ; "Note on a Liverpool Boulder,"
by T. M. Reade ; " The Contorted Schists of Anglc-
sea," by Dr. C. Ricketts ; "Microscopical Examina-
tions of Two Glacial Boulders," by J. E. George ;.
" On a Recent Discovery of a new Bone Cave at
Deep Dale, near Buxton," by J. J. Fitzpatrick ; "An
Examination of a Few Anglesea Rocks," by P.
Holland and E. Dickson, &c.

The ' ' Transactions of the Penzance Natural
History Society " include the following papers, besides
reports of excursions, &c. :— " The Presidential
Address" of the Right Hon. L. H. Courtenay ;.
' ' The Flora of Guernsey compared with that of West
Cornwall," by E. D. Marquand ; "Foreign Plants-
in West Cornwall," by W. A. Glasson ; "Plants-
growing in Tresco Abbey Gardens," by A. H.
Teague (this collection of living plants on a small
island is one of the most w-onderful facts in horti-
culture) ; Mr. Teague also contributes a paper on
" Starch as a Vegetable Production."

The first Part of the " South Eastern Naturalist "'
is published as the Journal of the Associated Natural
History Societies of the south-east of England.
Among the chief papers in this first and well-edited
number are the following : — " Life History of the
Giant Hogweed," by J. Reid ; "Beds between
Chalk and London Clay," by George Dowker ;
"Notes on the Great Pipe Fish," by G. Dowker;.
"Leaf Fungi of 1889 in the Neighbourhood of Dover,"
by W. T. Haydon ; "The Otolithes of Fishes," by
Sydney Webb; "A Neolithic Find near Dover,"
by W. T. Haydon, &c,

Black-Necked Grebe. — A fine specimen of the
eared or black-necked grebe {P. Nigricollis) was shot
on the Ouse, near York, October 23rd, and brought
to me in the flesh. It has since been stuffed and set
up by Helstrip, bird and animal preserver of this city.
Messrs Clarke & Roebuck, in their 1881 edition of
the "Yorkshire Naturalists' Handbook," record this
species as having occurred in Yorkshire on eight,
occasions. The bird is now in my possession. —
William Hewett.

A New British Worm.— The Rev. Hilderic
Friend, F.L.S., has recently discovered a new and
curious British worm, first described in 185 1 by Dr.
Grube from a single Siberian specimen under the name
of Lumbriais vudtispiniis. On account of its difference

44

HARDWI CKE 'S S CIENCE- G O SSIF.

in structure it was removed by Vaillant from the
genus Lumbricus, and made the representative of a
new genus called Echinodrilus. The worm is only
an inch in length when full grown, and has from
three to six setae in each group, four of which groups
or combs are placed on each segment save the first.
It is abundant in the one locality where it is at
present known to occur. The worm is being figured
or described elsewhere.

The Colours of Shells.— In reply to Mr.
.Barnes, the only publications on this subject, besides
ihose published by myself (Science-Gossip, August,
J890, and "Naturalists' Gazette," July and August,
1890, with a note in the " Zoologist " the year before
last), Mr. Pace's note (Science- Gossip, September,
1890), and Mr. Frj-er's article (Science-Gossip,
.■November, 1890), known to me are as follows : —
Mr. T. D. a. Cockerell, Science-Gossip, January,
]888 (referred to by Mr. Fryer) ; Mr. J. W. Taylor,
"Valedictory Address," "Journ. Conch.," April,
1888 (referred to by Mr. Fryer as the supposition of
Mr. Taylor on p. 242, ante, but really being the
:5upposition of Mr. Ashford) ; E. Schumann, " Schr.
Ges. Danz." (2), vi. p. 2 ; Bandelot, " Bull. Soc,
Strasb." i. (1868), pp. 132-134; Dietz, "J. B. Ver.
Augsb." XXV. (1879), p. 92; Hartmann, " CJastro-
poden d. Schweiz," 1840-44, p. 17 ; Colbeau, " Bull.
Soc. Mai. Belg." vii. p. 89; Gredler, " Nachr.
Mai. Ges." 1878, pp. 33-37; Tryon, "Structural
and Systematic Conchology " ; Williams, " Land and
Freshwater Shells," p. 19; H. E. Poulton, "The
Colours of Animals " ; Eimer, " Organic Evolution " ;
Cockerell, " Zoologist " (3), x. p. 341 ; Simroth,
" Nachr. Mai. Ges." xviii. pp. 65-80 ; Dodd,
"Journ. Conch." iv. p. 304; Eimer, "Tag.
Deut. Nat. Vers." Iviii. p. 408. In addition to
.these there exists a note of which I have not the
reference by me, but think it was published in the
"Journal of Conchology." This is by Miss Hele,
and records the darkening of H. aspersa by feeding
on lettuce. Possibly there are other papers of which
I have not summaries in my note-book. An inter-
esting paper by the Rev. Mr. Pearce, on the varia-
ftions in Helix caperata, has been lately published in
ihe "Journal of Conchology." In addition, the
following papers may also interest Mr. Barnes :—
Krukenberg, "Verg. Physiol. Vortrage," iii. 1884;
Macmunn, " Q. J. M. S." 1877 and 1885; " Proc.
Birm. Philosoph. Soc." iii, 1881-83, and vol. v. ;
•"Journal of Physiology," vols. vi. and viii. ; "Phil.
Trans." 1885 and 1886; "Proc. Physiol. Soc."
1887 ; " Brit. Ass. Reports," 1883 ; Lankester,
"Q. J. M. S." vol. xxii. ; Poulton, "Proc. Roy.
•Soc." 1885; Pockhngton, " Phar. Journ, Trans."
vol. iii. ; Moseley, " Q. J. M." xvii. ; and the papers
of Mr. Gulich, " Nature," July i8th, 1872; "Journ.
Linn. Soc"; "Zoology," vols. xi. and xx.— y. IV.
IVilliams,

BOTANY.

The Value of Attractive Characters to
Fungi.— Mr. C. R. Straton writes to "Nature" as
follows : — The importance of attractive colours and
odours, and of modifications of form to flowering
plants is now perfectly understood ; but the value of
attractive characters to Fungi has received compara-
tively little recognition. At first sight it would seem
unnecessary that a plant, unsusceptible of fertilisation,
should possess characters apparently designed to
enlist living creatures in its service : there is no pollen
for them to carry, and no ripe seed for them to
distribute, and attractive characters, such as colour,
taste, and odour, are extremely well marked. The
colours which fungi exhibit include almost every hue
from white to black. We have the brilliant red of
peziza cups : the orange-scarlet of the Amanita
mitscarius, with its cap gaily speckled with white ;
the crimson of the Russula emetica ; the rich yellow
of the Cantharellus cibarius ; the blue of the bruised
Boletus luridus ; the amethyst of the Agariacs
laccatus ; and the dark green of the bruised Ladariiis
deliciosus, with every possible shade to the deepest
jet. But not only have fungi colours that are
attractive by day ; some, like the Agaricus okamts, are
phosphorescent by night. Many tropical species
light up the jungle in the hours of darkness ; and in
this country the coal-mines are often found illuminated
by one of the polypores which propagates itself on the
timbers of the workings. The tastes and odours of
fungi are equally varied and attractive. Many
Agarics have an odour of fresh meal ; the Hydnuin
repandum rejoices in the flavour of oysters ; the
Armillaria mucidus in that of nuts ; the yellou'
chanterelle in that of apricots ; others have the scent
of various flowers, such as the violet and woodruff ; or
of aromatics like anise ; while a large number have
an indescribable damp-cellar or fungus smell, such as
slugs delight in. Many, like the shameless stinkhorn
{Phallus iinpudicus) emit an intolerable stench, which
so strongly resembles " the carrion of some woodland
thing " that blow-flies and ravens quickly find it out.
There can be little doubt that these are attractive
characters. What, then, can be the service which
these characters induce animals to perform for
fungi ? To answer this let us review briefly the
life-history of any fungus possessing characters of
an attractive kind. The common mushroom
[Fsalliota campcstris) is particularly agreeable to sheep
and oxen, and is abundant in autumn in rich pastures,
although there is still much in our knowledge of its
life-history that is incomplete, yet it is evidently
composed of two main periods : first, a parasitic
period passed in the body of an animal host ; and
secondly, a sapropliytic period passed on some suitable
organic soil. Let us sow the spores of a ripe mush-
room as carefully as we may, none of them will

HARDVVICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

45

grow : the first stage of the mushroom's existence
must be passed in the body of an animal host ; and
as horses, sheep and oxen are all readily attracted by
its taste and mealy smell, it has never any difficulty
in finding a host to take it in. When once the spores
have passed from the body of the host, they produce
a mycelium, from which the future mushroom is
formed. The connection between fungi and animal
droppings is a matter of verj- early obser\-ation, and
our forefathers were wont to believe that certain evil
species came from the body of the Wicked One,
and familiarly called them tode's stools, or devil's
droppings. In this division of the life-histoiy of
fungi, I believe, we have the key to the value of
attractive characters. Horses, oxen, sheep, foxes,
squirrels, moles, birds, snails, and insects are all
attracted by appropriate scents, tastes, and colours ;
and the forms and habitats of fungi are those which
have least succeeded in attracting their particular
hosts. There is no living being either great or small
enough to escape the attentions of these plants in
their ceaseless endeavours to attract ; and among
fungi, just as among flowering plants, every variation
of form, scent and colour has been perpetuated and
developed, because it has been successful in attracting
and in thus securing the multiplication of the species.
The subject is one, I think, that rcffuires the gathering
together of much individual observation in all parts
of the world ; and it would be -ivell if those who have
the opportunity would note at the time the name of
the fungus and its observed host, and if students of
biology, who possess facilities for laboratory work
would follow the matter still further by artificial
cultures, and so determine the^ changes that take
place in the body of the host, and the course of the
alternating sexual and agamous generations.

Chlorophyll in Plants.— Mr. J. Ballantyne's
article in November's issue of SciENCE-GossiP is
most interesting. A few years since I dug up in my
garden a hyacinth bulb which had been buried so
deep that it could never have come to the surface.
Its leaves were green, and the- purple flower gave
evidence that colour can be produced without light
and air. I think I mentioned this at the time, and
no notice was taken of it. — Rir.\ S, Arthur Breiian,
Cuskendu7t.

Hydrocotyle Asiatica. — In a recent number
of Science-Gossip I see amongst the Notes and
Queries a reference to the plant Hydrocotyle Asiatica,
I have never heard of its use as a cure for leprosy ;
but that it possesses medicinal and tonic properties
is evident from the fact that it is used by the Tamil
and Singhalese natives in Ceylon as a fish-poison.
During a residence of some years in Ceylon, I
frequently witnessed the operation. The leaves and
stems of the plants are pounded into a pulp and
stirred into the pool containing the fish, the stream
having been first diverted into a side channel. The

fish soon show signs of uneasiness, and rise to the
surface of the water, they are then easily captured by
hand. Both //. Asiatica and H. Javanica are used
for this purpose.—^. Ernest Green.

Hydrocotyle Asiatica.— En reponse a la
question posee par Me. Edith R. Allan dans le
dernier No. de votre journal, p. 282, j'ai I'honneur de
vous adresser la note suivante, qui, j'espere, repondra
aux desirs de votre correspondante. Hydrocotyle
Asiatica (L.) est une petite plante employee depuis-
long-temps dans la therapeutique indienne contre la,
fievre et surtout pour ses proprietes therapeutiques.
En 1872 le Dr. Boileau, qui etait atteint de %re,.
crut s'etre gueri par I'emploi de cette plante, et des
details a ce sujet ont ete publics par Bouton:
("Medical Plants of Mauritius"). Le Dr. Boileau
est mort de la lepre. Des experiences ont ete faites a.
I'Hopital des Lepreux par le Dr. Alex. Hunter qui
ne parut pas lui avoir reconnu une grande efficacite.
Le Dr. J. Shortt considere I'hydrocotyle comme
pouvant donner de bons effets dans les affections
lepreuses en raison de ses proprietes alterantes et
toniques. La plante a ete analysee par un pharmacien
de la Maison de Pondichery Lepine, qui y a trouve
un principe particulier. La dose est poudre 3 grains
par jour, teinture alcoolique \ grain.— Z?r. J. Leon
Soubeiranz, Professetir cl r Ecole de Pharmacieny
Montpellier.

Crepis Taraxifolia as a Sussex Plant. —
In your issue of November last your correspondent
R. B. P. records the finding of the above at
Willingdon. I may state that it also grows in
profusion at the Buxted end of the railway cutting-
between Uckfield and Buxted, where I gathered spe-
cimens last June. It is quite possible that it may
occur in other localities as it might easily be over-
looked or mistaken for some allied species. — F., Uck-
field.

Euphorbia Cyparissias in Kent. — If Messrs..
Styan and Haydon will refer to the report of the
Botanical Localities Record Club for 1876, they will
there find the occurrence of this spurge in Kent duly
notified. Specimens were distributed by me to the ■
members of the Botanical Exchange Club in that
and the following year. In one of the numbers of?
Science-Gossip for 1890, mention was made of
the plant having been gathered near Eastbourne. It
is frequent on the chalk slopes of Normandy, where
I have seen it growing in open places among box
and juniper ; also in Switzerland, in bushy places on
calcareous soil, and by roadsides, but not in woods.
I did not see any of it beyond Leuk. — E. de Cris-
pigny. — P.S. — See also February number of this
periodical for 1877.

Autumn Colours and Tints. — The remarks on
autumn colours by Professor Pellsbury, which
appeared in a recent number of SciENCE-GossiP, are

46

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

an the main correct, but do not seem to be entirely
so. For instance, erythrophyll, the red colouring-
matter of the cells of plants, is certainly not
■** derived from chlorophyll by the chemical forces of
the plant." On the other hand, xanthophyll (phyl-
loxanthin) undoubtedly is so derived, and it is the
only colouring pigment of leaves at all events that
is so related to chlorophyll or directly connected
therewith.. The statement, therefore, that "the
chlorophyll of the green flower or fruit is changed
into a special colouring-matter such as anthoxanthin,
etc.," can hardly be borne out. So far as the caves
are concerned, the state of affairs seems to be this.
During the whole life of the leaf, or at least as soon
as the normal amount of chlorophyll has been
formed therein, a small quantity is perpetually being
■changed (oxidised) to xanthophyll. This quantity is
■so small, or rather I think its colouring power is so
comparatively feeble, that it is, as stated in the
extract, "more or less comparatively covered up by
the presence of chlorophyll," i.e., by the blue-green
■constituent thereof. When the life of the leaf is
destroyed by frost or drought, the chlorophyll
is rapidly changed to xanthophyll, and this latter
•constitutes the first of the series of autumnal
tints. It very quickly, however, gives way to the
ochre, russet, and orange-brown, which are the
distinctive features of the autumnal woods, until
idtimately the dark, muddy, unpleasant shades of
final dissolution close the scene. The chlorophyll
and its derivative xanthophyll seem to be completely
destroyed or bleached, and thereupon the russet or
brown colours depending on totally different
principles came up into a supremacy which is more
or less vigorous and durable, according to the
variations of the season. As Sachs has it, "the
distinctive yellow autumn coloration of leaves
-depends on the yellow coloration of the disorganised
chlorophyll bodies : the autumnal brown coloration
of the cell-walls, chiefly, however, of the cell-
contents." I need hardly add that my personal
researches amply corroborate these observations of
the great German botanist. What then, it may be
asked, is the cause of erythrophyll, the exquisite red
colouring matter of the American maple leaf in the
fall ? The chemical cause is the oxidation or
hydration of the gallotannic or gallic acid, which is
abundant in the autumn ; and the special vividness
of the colour in this particular case is due to the
comparative delicacy and flaccidity of the tissues
whereby the oxidizing agencies of the air, etc., can
operate freely and potently. Some American
correspondent will doubtless correct me if I be
wrong ; but judging from some dried maple leaves
that I possess I consider that, as compared with our
own sycamore, their texture and consistency are con-
siderably more herbaceous, i.e., more thin and
flaccid. The following facts seem also to support
the main conclusion. A small thin bright red

sycamore leaf growing on a young shoot in mid-
summer was analysed, and found to contain much
gallic acid and a little chlorophyll (about as much as
an early red copper beech leaf contains), and sugar.
The other leaves of the same shoot were completely
green, but were much larger and stouter. I once
found an autumn sycamore leaf whose vivid tints
seemed to vie with those of the Transatlantic forest.
I picked it up : it was thin, delicate, and breaking to
shreds. On boiling the redder portions in dilute
alcohol the pigment dissolved leaving them almost
quite colourless ; and the solution gave the reactions
of erythrophyll, acetic acid, and a little gum, and
unchanged gallic acid. — P. Q. Keegaii.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Nest of Bombus Lapidaris. — In September
last, I found, in a small enclosure adjoining my
garden, a nest of Boinbiis lapidaris, and as my
little girl played on this ground, I removed it. The
nest was situated at teast twelve feet from the wall
in a corner formed by the two walls meeting. The
turf was smooth all round for more than six feet.
In one direction, in the corner, was a small heap of
stones covered with moss and nettles. A careful
inspection — no hole nor appearance of one, except at
the nest, which was of proper size. The nest was
found about seven inches deep, and one foot from
entrance. After carefully clearing the earth and
stones all round, I put my fingers under the nest so
as not to disturb the contents. Judge my surprise,
when the nest was safely placed on a board, to see
the skull of a stoat sticking out on one side. I found
the nest was built on a dead stoat, the body being
curled around with head raised in a comfortable
manner. The fur was worked into the covering of
the nest. Do these bees take advantage of dead
animals for the sake of the fur? Or is there any
other such case on record? — C. IF. P

Seaweeds. — In reply to F. II. B.'squery(p. 262),
I am sorry to say that I have not yet sufficient
experience to answer his questions ; but a lady-
collector, who spends a great deal of time at Swanage,
told me that she found four species of Delesseria
there, and several other imcommon seaweeds, of
which I have now forgotten the names. — A. H. B.

Vegetable Teratology.— In Science-Gossip
for November, Dr. J. E. Taylor gives an account of
strange monstrosities in plants. The. case of the
" Arum" Lily of the Nile has come under my own
notice also, and the case in which the sepals of
fuchsia have reverted to the leaf condition. I once
found on cutting open an orange what appeared to
be a fungus growing in the centre, which I dried and
kept. — Rev. S. A. Brcnari,

Curiosities in Eggs. — In accordance with a
wish expressed by Mr. J. P. Nunn, in the April
number of Science-Gossip, that collectors would
chronicle any curiosities in eggs with which they
may meet, I have here written an account of such as
have come under my notice. One of the most
curious freaks in eggs which I have ever observed is a
ca^e which came under my notice in the spring of the
year 1 890. On May the I2th, I was shown two eggs,
with somewhat the appearance of robin's, though

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

47

much larger, and with only one or two large red
spots on them. The person who showed them to me
said that he had taken them from a nest in a wall,
and that he had substituted two robin's eggs from
another nest. On the night following, I went with
the above-mentioned person to the nest. It was
nearly dark when we reached, the place, and upon
putting his hand into the hole he drew forth the
mother bird, which proved to be a robin. This was
not very surprising, but, upon our examining the
nest, we found it to contain, besides the two substi-
tuted robin's eggs, three purely white ones. From the
facts of this case, I should conjecture that the hen bird
had exhausted the stock of colouring matter in the
first two eggs, and that consequently the subsequent
three were white. In the eggs of the common
thrush also I have found eccentricities. On April 5,
1890, 1 saw a throstle's nest containing four eggs, all
of which were very large, and were marked with large
red-brown blotches, with the exception of one, which
was marked like ordinary specimens. On May 27, I
observed a throstle's nest containing two specimens of
the rounded spotless eggs of the thrush, mentioned by
Mr. Nunn and others. I have seen several eggs of this
class taken from this district, and also those of the
blackbird of the same type, i.e. devoid of markings.
On May 3, 1889, I took a blackbird's egg entirely
covered with deep red markings, and much resembling
a ring-ouzel's, from a nest containing four others of
the ordinary greenish colour. A friend of mine in
this town has in his collection several notable
curiosities, all taken by himself, e.g., a white sparrow-
hawk's egg taken from a nest containing three others
of the ordinary type. Two house -sparrow's eggs
with the markings gathered in a cap at the large end,
and a dwarf magpie's egg about the size of a marble.
In two instances have I met with greatly elongated
eggs, a missel thrush's taken on April 8, 1890, and a
blackbird's. On May loth, 1890, a throstle came
under my notice which was sitting on four of her
own eggs and a blackbird's, all of which were nearly
hatched. — Rcnulatui H. Hill, Halifax

Var. of p. Napi, etc. — In looking over my
collection of Lepidoptera, I note the following which
may be of some interest. A female specimen of the
green-veined white {P. Xapi), in which all the ner-
vures on the upper side are very deeply marked,
showing a perfect outline of the veins, and, .with a
broad band of dusky shading at the lower margin of
the front wings. Possibly this is one of the varieties
formerly ranked as distinct species ; it was taken at
Richmond Walk, May 26th, 1887, from a cluster of
jiettles. Also a specimen of the pearl bordered
Fritillary {A. E7tphrosy7ie), which was netted at
liickleigh Vale, May 21st, 1888. It was at the time
a perfectly fresh insect, but with its leit front wing
crumpled, with the markings in miniature. Thus
showing that some mishap had befallen it whilst
emerging from its aurelial covering. — Frederick G,
Smart.

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES.

Nov. 3rd. — Rooks busy building in their rookery —
one old bird sitting in the nest and its mate was
breaking ofif twigs- and carrying it to the one in nest
— the other birds were busy in the same waj'.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Ex-changers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists.— We must adhere to our rule cf
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to trea'
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken oi oux graiiiitoui
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end. . ''

Special Note. — There. is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To OUR Recent Exchangers. — We are willing and helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to. us
to appear unless as advertisements.

Dec. I. — Skylark singing.

A heron is called a goose ghost in this locality,
and is stated to be able to pass an eel through its
body and then eat it. At the fell moon it is considered
in good plump condition. — Rrj. S. A . Brenaii, ,

F. — A special number of Science-Gossip devoted to the
Hepaticse was published in 1865 or 1866, abundantly illustrated.
We fear it is now out of print, but apply to Messrs. W. H.
Allen & Co., Waterloo Place, London. We are always pleased
to welcome new contributors.

J. Fordvcb. — Apply to Mr. W. F. Collins, 157 Portland
Street, W., for information concerning Leighton's " Fasciculi
of British Lichens." He njay have a Fascirulus.

H. Browne. — Your guess is probably right, but take the
egg to the Norwich Museum and compare it.

R. D. — Get Burbidge's book on " Cool Orchids and How to
Grow Them" (published by W. H. Allen & Co., Waterloo
Place, we believe).

R. Addington. — Get Dr. M. C. Cooke's admirable little
book (published by the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge) on "Pond-Hunting" (price is. 6d.); or, stijl
better, the same indefatigable Dr. M. C. Cooke's boofc on
" Freshwater Algae," just publiihed at 5 J. by Messrs. Kegai:
Paul & Co.

H. A. M. — The editor cannot undertake to send copies of
his magazine to writers of books sent for notice who inform
him they do not take in Science-Gossip. That is both their
fault and their loss.

R. Draper. — Get Professor Asa Gray's book on " How
Plants Grow, Climb," &c. (fairly cheap, if you get it second-
hand of Messrs. Wesley & Son, Essex Street, Strand ; or Mr.
W. P. Collins, 157 Great Portland Street). In that capital
manual you will find all that you want, and more to stimulate
you for years to come, than any three. line? of commonrplace
explanation could give you. The sun has not got so much to
do with the climbing as the plants have.

EXCHANGES,

Wanted, a good Murex adustus. Offered, "Naturalists'
Gazette," 1890, complete.— W. Jones, jun., 27 Mayton Street,
HoUoway, London.

Offered, i-inch objective, 16°, by Tentmayer. What offers
in exchange in micro-slides or books ? Apply — T. W. Derring-
ton, 46 Worcester Street, Wolverhampton.

Wanted, Science-Gossip for 1874. Address— W. F. Kelsey,

Maldon. . , , .

Wanted, a few' fern fronds showing capsules, dried leaves,
Onosma iaurica, &c., and sand containing micro-shells. State
exchange requirements. — H. Ebbage, Framlingham, Suffolk.

Over one hundred species of beautifully mounted ferns, in
handsome half-bound book, fitting into strong case. What
ofiers? — Joseph .Anderson, jun.. Aire Villa, Chichester.

Fine and well-set species of British lepidoptera, in exchange
for postage stamps (unused copies of obsolete English, and
used or unused foreign desired).— Joseph Anderson, jun., Aire
Villa, Chichester.

V. inoulinsiana offered for L. involuta, S. oblonga,ar acme ;
also fossils, &c., in exchange for rock specimens, especially
slides.— Rev. John Hawell, Ingleby Greenhow Vicarage,
Northallerton. . .

FoRAM. sand from Barmouth, Montereau, Mauritius ; chalk,
coal measures, sponge, W. India, Channel Isles and Etag^

48

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Langhien. Sections of corals and spongy forms, minute recent
corals, coral vars., &c., also about half-a-dozen crystals, &c.
Wanted, material (no diatoms or forams), ground-edge slips,
cells, thin glass covers, living pupae, or anything pertaining to
natural history. — H. Durrant, 4 Boulton Road, West Bromwich.

Small collection of British and foreign shells, unnamed,
iSo specimens, sixty or more varieties. Also small geological
/:ollection. What offers? or will exchange for good book on
British beetles. — H. Browne, 53 St. Philip's Road, Heigham,
Norwich.

Wanted, the following British land and freshwater shells : —
7". haliotidea, scututuju ; A. marginata, gagates ; L. Icevis,
Hnereo-niger , arboriim ; S. oblonga, H. obvoluta ; V. aiitiver-
iigo, lilljeborgi, moulinsiana, substriata, tutitida, angnstior ;
A. lineata, P. acuta, H. jfcnkinsit, and vars. of all water
shells, also Continental and other foreign land and freshwater
shells. Will give American land and freshwater shells, birds'
skins, nests and eggs, living land tortoises (box), and beetles,
butterflies, and fungi mosses. Foreign correspondence solicited.
— W. J. Farrer, box 16, Orange, Va., U.S.A.

For exchange, a small collection of land, freshwater, and
marine shells, fossils, &c., about 80 species, 200 specimens.
Wanted, good microscope objective, i or i. — S. O. Grocock,
M.C.S., 13 Lower Maryon Road, Charlton, Kent.

"Atlas of Fossil Conchology" (Brown's), 114 large
.plates, 3500 figures, published 1889 at three guineas, offered
lor collection of fossils or mineralogical specimens. Wanted,
"The Micrographic Dictionary." — Mr. Stewart, 17 Upper
Gilmore Place, Edinburgh.

What offers for Darwin's " Phytologia," first edition, quarto,
-boards ; Darwin's " Zoonomia," second edition, 2 vols, quarto,
calf; Karl Russ's " Speaking Parrots;" Greene's "Amateur's
Aviary of Foreign Birds;" Marshall's "The Frog;" also
SciENCK-Gossii' for 1884 and 1889. — H. Roberts, 60 Princess
Road, Kilburn, London.

Small collection of minerals, in case, offered in exchange
for fossils or shells. — T. W. Reader, 171 Hemingford Road,
London, N.

New Zealand shells, principally marine, offered for shells
(not in collection, foreign land and freshwater species preferred.
— W. A. Gain, Tuxford, Newark.

Wanted, Harvey's "Phycologia Britannica." Offered,
Crouch microscope with i-inch and i-inch objectives, or Zeiss
i-inch immersion objective. — T. H. Buffham, Comely Bank
iioad, Walthamstow.

Wanted, Science-Gossip, Nos. 253-308, in exchange for
first-class micro-slides. — W. Tutcher, 57 Berkeley Road,
Bristol.

Duplicates. — Sophina calias, Streptaxis Blanfordi, S.
Tlieobaldi, S. Burmaitica, S. botnbax, S. cxaC7iius, Clausiiia
iVaageni, C. Theobaldi, C. iusignis, C. Gouldiana, C. cylin-
drica, Helkarioti Flemingit, Cataulus albescens, RapJiarlus
chrysalis, Hybocystis gravida, Cyclophorus Siame?isis, C.
speciosus ; list of many others. Desiderata, Indian and South
American land shells. — Miss Linter, Arragon Close, Twicken-
ham.

Wanted, any books relating to microscopy, also choice
anraounted material, in exchange for choice microscopic slides
>jf every description. — R. Suter, 5 Highweek Road, Totten-
ham, London.

Wanted, an injecting syringe and a Valentin's knife. —
H. P., 103, Camden Street, London, N.W.

Oldlmmia antiqua andC. radatia, Cambrian rocks. Bray
Head. What offers in minerals or fossils for the above 7—
William Doyle, Seapoint Road, Bray, Ireland.

Collection of dried plants, fifty species, made in Italy and
France, 1844, most mounted. List on application. 'What
offers? To be disposed of complete ; mosses desired. — Miss E.
Armitage, Dadnor, Ross.

C.^ssell's " Science for All," 5 vols, (clean, unbound),
" Knowledge," 2 vols., 1887, 1S88 (clean, unbound), and several
cithers, offered in exchange for British land and freshwater
mollusca not in collection. Send list to — C. H. J. Baldock,
f 7 Brewer Street, Woolwich.

Duplicates. — Varieties of guillemot eggs, including some
choice forms. Desiderata, British birds' eggs not in collection,
or varieties of same. — W. Hewett, 6 Howard Street, Fulford
Road, York.

Valuable Grecian clausilias, and other shells, offered for
shells not in collection. — Address — Miss F. M. Hele, 11 Elm-
grove Road, Cotham, Bristol.

A fine collection of Scotch graphites offered in exchange for
rare tropical shells. — Address — Miss F. M. Hele, 11 Elmgrove
Road, Cotham, Bristol.

Advertiser wishes to correspond with some person who
will undertake to send names of South African spiders and
f;corpions in exchange for specimens. — F. West, Poplar Villa,
Lansdowne Place, Port EliEabeth.

"Royal Microscopical Journal," 1 869-1 S87, inclusive, in
parts, all clean and perfect. What offers? — B., 3 Brownhill
Road, Catford, Kent.

Wanted British and foreign shells not in collection. Offered,
many other shells. — E. R. Sykes, 9 Belvidere, Weymouth.

Offered, more than 550 species of plants from the North of
iFrance, in exchange, at once, for as many species, provided

they be not French ones. Write to M. Abel Briquet, 49 Rue
Jean de Bologne, Douai (Nord), France.

Wanted, January, 1890, number of Science-Gossip, ts .
offered. Address — Rev. W. Langley, Narborough Rectory,
Leicester.

Offered, about 400 species of fossils of the tertiary Parisian
grounds, well named, in good state of preservation, and in good
number ; also living shells. Wanted in exchange, fossils of
other tertiary grounds, living shells, prehistoric matters, and
postage stamps. — M. Louis Giraux, 22 Rue Saint Blaise, Paris.

Offered, good case of ichthyosaurus, from lias of Lyme
Regis, 22 X 12. Wanted, any good fossils from any formation.
— M., 56 Clarendon Villas, West Brighton.

K. Bonnet, 9 Rue Mazagrau, Paris, offers good fossils
from the Paris tertiaries in exchange for fossils from all forma-
tions, and recent shells.

Wanted, brilliant foreign coleoptera ; need not be set, but
must be correctly named. Good exchange given in first-class
botanical sections, either mounted or unmounted, or objects of
general interest. State quantity of specimens with sample. —
R. G. Mason, 69 Clapham Park Road, Clapham, S.W.

Bryum Marrattii, B. calophyllum, B. IVarneum, Hypnum
cristi-castrensis, Catoscopiuin nigritum, Buxbaumia aphylla,
and a few others, in exchange for microscopic slides. — Geo.
Forbes, 7 Graham Place, Dundee.

Freshwater fishes. Wanted, to correspond with anglers
or others who could supply good fresh specimens of trout,
roach, perch, pike, &c., suitable for purposes of taxidermy.
Would give in exchange preserved specimens in any branch of
marine zoology, micro-slides of highest class, scientific books.
—J. Sinel, 6 Peel Villas, St. Helier, Jersey.

Wanted, odonata (dragonfiies) from all parts of the world.
Slate desiderata in return. North American odonata for ex-
change.— Philip P. Calvert, Academy of Natural Sciences,
Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.

Wanted, entomological store boxes and apparatus in good
condition. Exchange secondary or tertiary fossils, or eggs and
nests of our common birds. — W. D. Carr, Lincoln.

Collection of British shells, entomological setting cabinet,
collecting box, and store box. Will exchange for books or
anything useful. — J. Morton, New Brompton, Kent.

Offered, Science-Gossip for 1890, and January, 1891.
Wanted, carboniferous fossils. Send lists to — B. T. Bonser,
Colebrooke House, 29 Highbury New Park, London.

VVanted, to correspond with collectors in Britain and abroad
with the view of exchanging birds' eggs in the coming season.
Send list of wants and duplicates. Can offer many species o
American eggs on British list. — Robert William.s, Croase
House, Kingsland, R.S.O.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.

"Acids in Practical Geology," by G. A. J. Cole (London:
C. H. Griffin & Co.). — " F.-ithers of Biology," by Ch. McRae
(London: Percival & Co.). — "The Honey Bee," by T. W.
Coward (London: Houlston & Sons). — Wesley's "Nat. Hist,
and Scientific Book Circular," No. 105. — " Knowledge." —
" American Microscopical Journal." — "American Naturalist."
— "Canadian Entomologist." — " The Naturalist." —" The
Botanical Gazette." — "The Gentleman's Magazine."— " The
Midland Naturalist."—" Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes." —
" The Microscope." — "Nature Notes." — "Proceedings of the
Geologists' Association." — " Victorian Naturalist." — Dr. C. V.
Riley's Report to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (always
welcome). — Same author on " Insecticides and means of
Applying them to Shade and Forest Trees " (published by
ditto). — Dulau's "Catalogue of Zool. and Palseontolog. Lit." —
" Brtish Naturalist Catalogue of Land and Freshwater Shells
Great Britain," by T. D. A. Cockerell.— " Jourral of Quekett
Microscopical Club." — "British Cage Birds," Part 9. — " British
Canary Book," Part 9, &c., &c.

Communications received up to the i2Th ult. from:

E. B.— A. E.— Dr. A. C— Dr. A. E. G.-E. C— C. W. P.—
A. H. B.— E. G. E.— A. E.— L. G.— A. J. J. B— W. L.—
S. A. B.— W. H.— Dr. G. C. M.— R. H. H.— A. C— Prof.
J. L. S.— E. E.— G. W. N.— R. M.— F. B. C— G. R. S.—

F. M. H.— V. A. L.— E. E. G.— F. W.— E. N. L.— F. G. S.—
W. B.— W. F.— C. P.— R. S.— W. C— W. J. F.— F. N. W.
— L. O. C— W. D. S.— H. R.— T. W. R.— W. A. G.—
T. H. B.— J. H.— H. D.— J. F.— H. E.— J. T.— Miss E.—
C. H. J. B.— E. B.— E. H. F.-J. A., jun.— Dr. E. De C—
H. E.— W. F. K.— M. B. M.— W. D.— M. L. S.— W. J. J.—
T. W. C— C. W.— J. B. H.— J. E. L.— G. F.— 1. T.—
F. C. M.— H. A. F.— V. C— H. F.— R. G. M.— J. S. W.—
A. B— W. T.— Miss L.— E. H. J. E.— J. W. R.— J. B.—
W. A. G.— W. J. S.— J. E.— E. G. P.— W. B.— E. B.—
Dr. G. T. C M.— C. W.— F. C. M.— L. W. M.— J. C. S.—
R. S.— H. D.— W. W. P.— W. M.— W. A. P.— W. B.—
R. A. B.— J. B. C— A. B. G.— W. E. W.-W. T. P.— G. H.
— H. M.— H. G. W.— W. W. F.— W. T. H.— H. W.—
C. H. H. W.— P. P. C— P. Q. K.— W. W.— R. W.— B. T. B.
— W. D. C— I. M.— R. A.— &c., &c.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

47

JOTTINGS CONCERNING CERTAIN FRUIT-TREES.

By MARY B. MORRIS.

The Apricot.

i^^^^^ HE origin of this tree
has been much and
long disputed, and
travellers are still
of divers opinions
on the subject. By
some it is referred
to Armenia as its
native country, and
this would seem to
arise from its having
anciently borne the
name of Mailon
Armeniacon, by
which the learned
Dioscorides calls it,
whilst, as he tells us,
the Latins called it
Raikokion; our
modern botanical
name still seems to refer it to the same origin — we
designate it Armeiiiaca vulgaris. Neither Greeks nor
Romans seem to have known or cultivated it prior to
about loo years B.C. There is abundant evidence, on
the other hand, that the Chinese, who were so well
versed in both gardening and horticulture in the very
remote ages of antiquity, cultivated the apricot at
least 2200 years B.C. A writer who flourished in
China from 2205-2198 B.C. describes the tree and
the fruit under its name, "Sing," as very abundant
on the hills. The wild fruit would appear to have
been small, the skin yellow and red, with a reddish-
yellow flesh, of an acid flavour, but quite eatable ;
both frait and leaves were equally similar to our
cultivated species, but considerably smaller. Pliny
writes of it as " Praecocium," from the precocity of
the species, and probably our English name is but a
corruption of this word, since our earlier cultivators
of it were wont to speak of it as a precox ; the un-
learned united the two words, and wrote aprecocks,
abrecocks, &c.

No. 315. — March 1891.

Various authors have described it as growing-,
apparently wild, in great abundance in the Caucasus
and around the Caspian and Black Seas, whilst on
the other hand, Koch (and some others),, who travelled
through the region of the Caucasus and Armenia,
with a view to making observations upon the
natural productions of the countries visited, reports
that during a prolonged stay in Armenia he nowhere
found a wild apricot, and but rarely a cultivated one,
French travellers do not agree as to its being found
wild in Persia, but that it grows in great abundance
there, far from the haunts of men, we read in Dr.
Wills' interesting work, " The Land of the Lion and
the Sun," in which he speaks of vast numbers of
trees, the fruit of which was falling to the ground in
enormous quantities, so that he wished some enter-
prising person could be found who would set up a
" canning " business there and then, and by utilis-
ing the tempting fruit, redeem them from waste and
destruction, and make his own fortune in the venture.

A kind of wild apricot has been found growing
amongst the ruins of Baalbec, but from the descrip-
tion given, both leaves and fruit differ considerably
from our ordinary apricot. A French writer, ]Mons.
Regmer, represents that the apricot is probably a
native of the oases of the desert of Egypt — an
opinion which he founds upon these circumstances :
first, that the modern Greek name Perikokka closely
resembles the Arabic Berkhach ; secondly, that vast
quantities of the fruit are actually dried in the oases
and brought to Egypt, where they are called Mish-
mish ; and thirdly, that the early period of the year,
when its blossoms unfold, indicates that the tree
belongs rather to a southern than to a northern
climate. This last reason can scarcely be held good,
since v/e know that many plants, such as some kinds
of blackthorn, which are without doubt natives of the
coldest regions of Europe and Asia, bloom and un-
fold their leaves equally early.

That the tree was not known in Egypt at an early
period we may conclude, from the fact that the-

D

50

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

Hebrews did not know it, and have no name for it
in their language ; they would have known it, and
the Romans have had it much earlier than they
had if the fruit had come from Egypt. Though
found abundantly now in Algeria, it is evidently of
recent introduction, having naturalised itself in
districts where the stones have been thrown away
from|[cultivated specimens.

The apricot [is frequently found wild in the hills
between the Jumna and the Ganges, and from a
writer on the botany of the Himalayas and Cashmere
we learn that the apricot is so generally planted
around the villages that there are few without them,
the fruit being eaten fresh, and also dried, whilst a
very fine oil is expressed from the stones. The use
to which this oil is still put is mentioned in a recent
book of travel. Mrs. Bridges, in "A Lady's Tramp
Round the World," gives an account of a Thibetan
ball at which she was present in the Himalayas, the
room in which the festivity was held being lighted
with oil made from apricot stones. In some parts of
Cashmere apricots and other fruit trees form a
perfect jungle. The dried fruit has been brought
from Cashmere to India in considerable quantities ; it
is called Klioot-banee.

The apricots on the Himalayas, at 12,000 ft.
elevation, are so hard, that a native when carrying
his load of them to market, thinks nothing of sitting
upon his burden — a strong contrast this to the custom
of a well-known character in an eastern county at
the early part of the century. This gentleman,
being the owner of a large estate some seventy miles
from London, and having gardens so prolific that
the produce was the source of considerable revenue
to him, after the supply of his own table had been
provided, was accustomed to send the surplus pro-
duce to Covent Garden ; and the wall fruit when ripe
being very perishable, and easily injured, he directed
that it should be placed in shallow baskets to be
carried on women's heads, the tread of a man being
considered by him too heavy for the conveyance of
the luscious load.

The apricot tree was late in coming to England,
being introduced here from Italy, as far as we can
ascertain, in the year 1524, by Woolf, gardener to
Henry VIII., who, it appears, introduced several
valuable fruits at about the same period. It is
strange that a fruit so well known in the east should
not sooner have reached our western regions, but we
know that in Britain there were, up to the sixteenth
century, but few establishments save the monasteries
which had orchards or gardens attached to them.
Happily, during the reigns of Henry VIII. and
Elizabeth the spirit of discovery pervaded the land,
and one of the results of an acquaintance with new
lands, and that no mean result either, was the
introduction of many fruits and flowers which had
hitherto been unknown to us. By the middle of the
seventeenth century most common fruit trees were

cultivated in sufficient abundance to render their
importation unnecessary.

The progress of this improvement, however, was
but slow, owing to the want of nurseries for such
trees ; and persons who lived in remote places, and
wished to introduce into their gardens new varieties
of fruit, were obliged, Hartlib writes, "often to send
100 miles for them ; " no trifling obstacle, let us
remember, these " 100 miles," when roads were bad
and there were no facilities for their conveyance such
as we now possess.

It is no part of my intention in these "jottings,"
to teach my readers the best method of cultivating
fruit trees. I will not pretend to recommend one
sort above another, one system of pruning before
another, though, if any of my readers should be so
generous as to set before me ever so large a variety, I
will undertake to give my opinion as to kinds, when
I have been made free to place them under the
crucial test of a somewhat sensitive palate. Still, I
may be allowed to give them the advice of a wiser
gardener than myself, as to the time for planting
trees and for gathering their fruits.

Old Thomas Tusser, under " January's Husban-
dry," writes as follows : — .

" Set chestnut and walnut.
Set filbert and smallnut.

" Peach, plum-tree and cherry.
Young bay and his berry,
Or set their stone,
Unset leave none. n

" Sow kernel to bear
Of apple and pear ;
All trees that bear gum
Now set as they come.

" Now set or remove
Such stocks as ye love."

For gathering, under September's Husbandry: —

" The moon in the wane, gather fruit for to last.
But winter fruit gather when Michel is past ;
Though michers* that love not to buy or to crave,
Make some gather sooner, the few for to have.
Fruit gathered too timely will taste of the wood,
Will shrink and be bitter, and seldom prove good ;
So fruit that is shaken and beat off a tree.
With bruising and falling soon faulty will be."

DUCKING : A LINCOLNSHIRE SKETCH.
By Gregory Benoni.

[Continued from /. 40.]

AFTER a short rest to allow the old master to
recover from the exertion and excitement inci-
dental to the capture, we proceeded to the eastern pipe
by a hidden pipe running through the sheltering copse
at the foot of the sand-hills. Here, instead of employ-
ing the dog, which must not appear too often, for fear
it should cease to excite curiosity, the decoy-ducks were
called to our aid. There are a number of cross-bred
birds originating from the wild and domesticated
varieties. They live in the decoy, and are fed in the

* Michers = pilferers.

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

51

pipes throughout the year, so that they are always
ready to obey the call-note of their master, however
distant they may be from his station. On this
occasion the "decoys" were lying by the wind-
bound western pipe, where they had supped the night
before. But as soon as we had taken our new places
the decoy-man blew a shrill blast on his whistle,
which startled the whole pond, and made the drakes
give tongue in clamorous chorus, whilst the decoys
awoke to the sense that breakfast is an admirable
institution.

Again the whistle sounded, and yet again, till the
birds comprehended whither they ought to steer ; and
meanwhile the lad scattered hemp seed upon the
water along the whole length of the pipe.

Soon we saw the trained birds making their way
across the centre of the pond, accompanied by
some three hundred wild fowl. On they came, a
sight most enchanting, as they flashed in the January
sun, and reflected its lustre from their iridescent
plumage, till at last the leaders and their mingled
following reached the head of the pipe.

The tame birds began to devour the seed with great
eagerness, for they cannot escape from the pond and
its immediate surroundings except by flight, which
they rarely attempt, and little food is to be found in
such an over-tenanted place. The wild birds, too,
began to feed, and gradually advanced up the canal
under the net, without any apparent fear of danger,
while we slowly retired before them for fear of dis-
covering our retreat.

The scene was strangely picturesque, as the ciew
of mallard and teal, with here and there a stray
shoveller or pintail, pressed onwards with grace in
every turn and movement, a grace which seemed to
give the lie to their connection with the heavy farm-
yard louts who claim cousinship with them. But
while we were yet admiring their beauty, and trying
to fix some of their natural positions in our mind for
future drawings, the scene changed. Jack showed
himself abruptly in their rear, and the greater
number fluttered wildly up the pipe ; though a few
saved themselves by flying or diving back into the
pond. We followed the doomed flock at a gentle
pace, gesticulating violently but silently to drive on
the laggards when they showed any disposition to
return. At the end we found the tunnel net taxed to
its utmost strength, so jammed had the poor birds
become in their fearful rush.

" Six shillings a couple for ducks, and four for teal,
as they're up now," murmured our old entertainer, in
an ecstacy of delight at his extraordinary good luck.
" Niver, niver, saw I owt like it i' all my born days,
an' shouldn't if I liv'd to be twice as old again as I
am, rheumatiz an' all."

As he spoke he knelt down, and proceeded to take
out and dispatch the birds with great caution, his
grandson helping in the work, but with less skill ;
when, " whir, whir, whir," sounded above us from

the rhythmical cadence of many wings, and glancing
up, we descried some sixty ducks on the look out for
any possible danger, flying round and round the tops
of the trees, as their custom is before alighting. The
Londoner, entirely forgetful of the strict injunttions
to taciturnity, exclaimed in excitement, " What the
devil's up with us! Where's a gun?" But a
threatening shake of the fist from the old man,
accompanied by a look which ought to have
annihilated him, brought him back to a sense of
decoy convefiances.

"Doon for yer lives; lig oot at length; lig on
your bellies an' hide your heads." Then to the
stupified townsman, "Get into yon rummuck" — a
tangled mass of brambles and dead nettles — ^"ony-
where, onywhere oot o' the birds' sight."

Such were the commands issued by the irate
ducker in an agonised whisper, and down he
dropped on his net, from which not a quarter of the
ducks had been extricated, with his head and
shoulders thrust into a bed of withered herbage,
despite the " rheumatiz and all."

We skulked and crouched as best we might, trying
to look as unlike human beings as nature would
allow ; while round and round, up and down, here
and there, went the birds, ^often dipping till they
almost touched the water, yet always sheering off
when our desire that they should settle seemed on
the point of gratification.

" They're going, they're going," ejaculated the old
man below his breath, with many strange inarticulate
gutturals expressive of impatience and expectancy.
"Noo, noo, they're in, I do believe. Ay, they're in
at last. Jack, just get up an' hev a peep, lad."

Up got Jack forthwith to spy through the reeds on
"the shooting," but only to fall flat again as if
shot. For up and down and round about went the
watchful flight for some minutes longer, till at last,
when our patience was almost exhausted, they
dropped into the pond breast foremost, cleaving the
rtpples in the most delicate and pretty manner in the
world.

The moment the last bird touched the water we
rose from our constrained attitudes, to indulge in a
quiet joke over the thorny retreat in which our
southern friend had ensconced himself, and to
congratulate ourselves on the sport we had seen.

" These here will be fresh from the sea," observed
the ducker, beginning to draw the quarry from the
net again, and holding up a teal for our inspection.
" Them as th' dog got was^carcely touched wi' red,
but these have breasts as ru^-coloured as can be —
they know nowt of fresh water. I bet they cum'd in
this morning."

Birds newly arrived from the ocean are far less
wary than the land-feeding fowl, which are generally
home-bred, or old stagers, acquainted with every
device of the fowler. Some birds visit the decoy for
years in succession, and are never taken ; as was the

D 2

52

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

case with a mallard duck, which had a ring of white
feathers round the neck, and was much sought after
for the proprietor's collection of stufted birds.

Before we quitted the decoy the master showed us
an anomaly among the trained birds, no less than a
duck more than thirty years of age. It had been in
the pond all its life, and had grown curly tail
feathers like a drake for some seasons, having ceased
to lay, or take any interest in nesting matters,
though surrounded by descendants to the twenty-
eighth generation.

But enough for the present. We had seen a noble
day's sport, land made a notable bag, for seventy-
nine teal, sixty-three mallards, seven widgeon, four
shovellers, a pintail, and a " tame-flier," or barn-yard
duck, which had joined its wild relations, were
counted into the game-room. A better take had not
been known for some years.

After mutual congratulations, we shook hands with
the jubilant decoy-man, promising to come again for
another look at his birds, and turned our steps
homeward, talking of gunnery and fowling as we
went.

(To be continued.)

A NEW BRITISH MOSS.

Cinclidotus riparius (Walker Arnott).

*' OEARCH has been repeatedly made without
vj success," says Wilson, for the moss whose
discovery in Great Britain it is now a pleasure to be
able to announce in these columns.

The little river Teme, which winds its picturesque
way along part of the southern boundary of Shrop-
shire, and for some distance divides that county from
Herefordshire, here forming deep and silent pools,
there rippling lightly over the stony shallows, and
bedecked with water-weeds all so much alike to the
casual observer, but of such variety and interest to
the lover of nature, has at last delivered up to us the
little weed for which " search has been repeatedly
made without success." The fortunate finder is Mr.
Arther W. Weyman, of Ludlow, who collected it in
April last, and sent it to me recently, with other
specimens, for consultation. It was evident at once
that it differed from any British moss which one
could regard as allied to it ; and having a slight ac-
quaintance with Cinclidotus riparius, I concluded that
it must be that species. Dr. Braithwaite, Mr. J. E.
Bagnall, and Mr. H. Boswell have kindly looked at
it, and settled the question in the affirmative. Dr.
Braithwaite states that it was found two years ago
in Ireland, so that the present is not absolutely the
first record of the species for the United Kingdom.
A description of it with figures will duly appear in
the "Br. Moss Flora."

The name Cinclidotus riparius is already some-
what familiar to us, as it occurs in Wilson, Berkeley,
Hobkirk's Synopsis, ed. 1873, &c., but only in con-

nection with its assumed variety terrestris, now known
as Tortula mucronata, Barbula mucroitato, or B.
Brebissojii (Brid.). The true C. riparius is different
in habit, usually darker in colour, and larger. The
leaves are straight when dry, smooth (not papillose),
margins slightly thickened and plane (Fig. 28 a) ;
whereas in B. mucronata the leaves when dry, though
incumbent and only slightly twisted or bent inwards
on the lower parts of the stem, are much twisted at
the tips of the branches. They are strongly papillose,
the margins more thickened, and recurved. Some-
times the effect under the glass is that of a plane

Fig. 28.

Fig. 29.

Fig. 30.

margin with the whole of the thickening occurring
on the under side of the leaf, so as to give the appear-
ance of a recurved margin (Figs. 29 and 30 B). The
nerve is generally excurrent (Fig. 31 c), and the
areolce smaller.

In some states the two mosses much resemble
each other. Wilson says: "Bruch and Schimper
positively affirm that they have witnessed the
existence of every intermediate form," and the writer
possesses specimens of each which are so much alike
that, failing the very minute investigation demanded
in the present day, they may easily be taken for the
same. But let the necessarily careful examination
be made, and the distinctions pointed out above are

HARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

53

there unmistakably, leading to the conclusion that
the two are as closely allied as are \^QgC7tera in which
they are respectively placed by modern authors, but
not more so.

The present moss may have been overlooked in
mistake for C. fontinaloidcs, but if a number of
specimens of the latter from different localities be
compared together, the leaves, while varying a good
deal in width, termination of the nerve, and also
slightly in the size of the cells, will be found to be
always more or less acute in general outline (Figs. 32
and 33 d), only the actual point sometimes obtuse, and
strongly twisted when dry. In C. riparuis the leaves
are obtuse, and either rounded, the nerve disappear-
ing at or below the apex (Fig. 34 e) ; or there is a
small slightly recurved apiculus (Fig. 35 f). The basal
cells are more elongated and slightly narrower.

Pending the appearance of an authoritative de-
scription of the species, the foregoing remarks may be
of some slight assistance to the increasing circle of
students in this fascinating branch of botany who may
now make search, and not without hopes of success.

W. P. Hamilton.

Shreivsbury.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
BRITISH DIPTERA.

By E. Brunetti.

[Continued /roin p. 39.]

HE Diptera are divided into four primary
groups : —

T

Legs at juncture with thorax contiguous : Proboscidea.
Antennae of many joints (at least six) : Nematocera.
Antennae of only three distinct joints.

Posterior veins of wing, branched : Brachycera.
Posterior veins of wing, simple : Hypocera.
Legs at juncture with thorax wide apart: Eproboscidea.

NEMATOCERA.

The characters of the Nematocera may be sum-
marised as follows. Body, delicately elongated, legs
usually long and slender, antenna of many joints,
flexible ; veins in wing numerous, alulae small, ocelli
usually present, anal cell in wing usually open.

The venation in many genera varies in the
relative lengths of some of the veins and their
respective positions.

llesonotum with a distinct vertical furrow : TipuUdce.
Mesonotum without such furrow.
Ocelli present (two or three).

Discoidal cell complete : Rhyphida.
Discoidal cell absent.

Antennae half length of thorax. Pronotum brought

forward, conspicuous : Bibionidce.
Antennae at least as long as thorax. Pronotum
normal, conspicuous : Mycetophilida.
Ocelli absent.

Costal vein barely reaching top of wing.

Antennae shorter than thorax. Wings, broad ;
tibiae and metatarsus broad, compressed. Siviu-
lidce.
Antennae as long as or longer than thorax. Wings
narrow, librae and metatarsus slender, cylindrical :
Chironomidce.

Costal vein attenuated round posterior margin of wing :
At most six posterior wing cells : Cecidotnyidce.
At least more than six cells.

Wings ovate ; tip pointed : Psydiodida.

Wings oblong ; tip rounded : Ctilicida.

1. Cecidomyidcs.

Winnertz has elaborately monographed some of
the European genera of thi:; group, having devoted
twenty-five years to the study of this family. The
larvoe are oval, fleshy grubs, feeding on various parts
of plants ; many form galls, and some live in rotten
wood. The pupse resemble the imago, but are of
course wingless.

Degeer and others have observed the trans-
formations of some of the species. The imagos are
elegant and delicate small flies, about seventy or
eighty species at least being British, though Walker
introduces double this number.

Schiner recognises two sub-families.

Fourth longitudinal vein absent : Cecidomyinae.
Fourth longitudinal vein present : Lestreminae.

Cecidoviyia destructor. Say., is the " Hessian fly,"
which in its larval stage does such extensive damage
to the wheat. It is not rare on the continent,
devastating at times whole districts, but has seldom
been met with in England. It is of a brownish grey
colour, with clear wings, elongated abdomen, and
long, thin, black legs.

Diplosis tritici, Kirby, is known as the " wheat
midge."

The neuration of Diplosis resembles that of
Cecidomyia, except that the vein nmning towards the
top of the wing is usually straight.

Some other enemies of the agriculturist are,
C. brassiciS, Winn., feeding on rape pods. C.pyri,
Bouche, feeding on pear trees. D. centralis, Winn.,
feeding on beech.

Westwood figures the larva of D. pint, Deg., in his
"Class. Ins.," vol. ii. Fig. 125-6, and the pupa in
Fig. 125-7. D. veriia. Curt., Curt. 178. D. tritici,
Kirby, Curt. "Farm. Ins.," PI. i. 8.

2. Mycetophilida:.

The Mycetophilidie are small, delicate flies, re-
sembling the CecidomyidiE. Many of the genera are
easily recognised by the difference in venation and
the presence of spines on the legs, both of which are
good generic characteristics. The larvce live as a
rule in fungi or rotten wood.

Antenna; as long or longer than body : lilacrocera, Pz.
Antennae much shorter than body.

Terminal joint of palpi elongated : Plafyura, Mg.
Terminal joint of palpi short.

Discoidal cell present : Sciophila, Mg.
No discoidal cell : Mycetophila, Mg.

The four principal genera may be separated as
follows : —

Sciara Thonm, L., is black, with long thin legs and
dark brown wings ; long \\ mm.* The larvae of this

* Twenty-five millimetres make one inch.

54

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IF.

genus do not spin cocoons as do those of Mycetophila,
and other genera.

Sciophila, Mg., frequents the leaves of trees,
herbage and woods.

Mycetophila, Mg., is generally distributed. West-
ward notices the transformations of one or two
species of Platyura, Mg.

Bolitophila^ 3Mg., occurs occasionally in mid-winter
if the weather is mild.

About 150 species of Mycetophilidc; are British,
some being tolerably common, but tlie majority are
less frequently met with.

Sciara Thomce, L., Wlk. vol iii. PI. xxx, 3.
Platyjira flavipes, Mg., Curt. 134. Macroccra
stigma. Curt., Curt. 637. Mycetophila cingulum,
Mg., Wlk. vol. iii. PI. xxi. 2.

3. Bibionidir.

Most of the Bibionida: are vernal, often appearing
in great numbers, the males hovering in the air,
their legs vertical. The larvoe are worm-like, living
in the earth, on grass roots ; the pupa is naked.

Antennae four-jointed : Bibio, Geoff.
Antennae eleven-jointed.

Palpi long : Dilopluis, Mg.

Palpi short : Scatopse, Geoff.

Bibio Marci, L. , a rather large black fly, appearing
in IMarch ; abdomen elongated, legs rough and
hairy; Avings clear in <?, brown in $ : transforma-
tions known ; long 8 mm.

Dilophus febrilis, L., is a smaller species, not un-
like the above, and is sometimes taken in winter.
In its larval state it infests the potato ; a correspond-
ent of mine bred it from Calceolaria.

Scatopse notata, L., is a small black fly, often
common in houses in the summer and autumn ; the
wings are large and quite clear, the legs rather short,
long 2-3 mm.

Bibio venos2ts, Mg., Curt. 138. B. Marci, L.,
Wlk. iii. PI. xxx. 5. Scatopse bifilata, Hal., Wlk.
iii. PI. xxiv. 6.

4. Siinitlidci:.

These are often known as "sand flies" [Simuliutn,
Lat.), and sometimes are as numerous and as great a
source of annoyance as mosquitoes. The larvas of
some species are aquatic, the wings of the imagos
emerging from the pupa case beneath the water.

Only two species are British ; both uncommon.
Walker gives five species (three being repudiated by
Verrall), whilst Curtis mentions no less than thirteen
as indigenous.

5. Chironomidce.

A large number of species are British, but they
have not yet been satisfactorily worked out. The
species in most instances are fairly distinct, but
owing to the lack of published matter, exceedingly
difficult to identify.

Walker describes the larvas of two common
species.

They are known as " mosquitoes," and are small
delicate flies, with clear wings and indistinct vena-
tion, the males having large feathery (plumose)
antenna. No ocelli. They are common of an
evening, usually hovering in small swarms under trees
and over bushes.

Chironotnus pliimosus, L., is the common "mos-
quito," the larva being aquatic, blood-red, living in
stagnant water.

Winnertz has elaborately monographed the genus
Ccraiopogon, Mg. (known as midges).

The two principal genera may be separated
thus : —

Metathorax produced over base of abdomen : Chironoinus,

IMg.
Metathorax short, descending to the posterior coxae :

Ceratopogon, Mg.

The bodies of some species of Taiiypus are almost
transparent, and most of the species have spotted
wings. They are distinguished from Chirojwmus by
the apex of the discoidal cell giving forth four veins
instead of three.

Clunio marinus, Hal., a rare species, has coria-
ceous wings, and is found on the sea-coast .

Chironoiims pliunosus, L., Wlk. iii. PL xxx. 4.
Tanypiis nebiilosiis, Mg., Curt. 501.

6. Orphncphilida:.
Orphnephila icstacca, Ruth., has occurred in
Britain. It is a rare species.

7. PsycJiodidce.

These are small, blackish-grey, pubescent, moth-
like flies, with very large scaly wings fringed at the
edge, and pointed at the tip. The larva; are aquatic.
(Two common species live in cowdung. ) One species,
P. phalcenoidesy L., being very common, occurring
in London all through the summer months ; easily
recognised by its zigzag movements on the windows.
P. sexpiuictata, Curt., is not uncommon, being easily
recognised by the six small but distinct black spots
along the front border of each wing. One or two
species appear in mid-winter.

P, sexpunctata. Curt. 745.

8. CuUcidic.

The too well-known "gnat," Culex pipiens, L., is
the type of this family.

The larva: (figured by Westwood) are aquatic, and
active, the eggs being glued together in the form of a
boat. Degeer and others have well worked out the
life-histories of several species. The pupa is active,
but takes no nourishment.

The Culicida: may easily be recognised and
separated from the Chironotiiidcc, to which they bear
some resemblance, by their wings being fringed, and
the venation being more distinct and more compli-
cated.

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP.

55

The proboscis is long and powerful, composed of
seven pieces. No ocelli.

Stephens, some years ago, monographed the
British species, which are nearly twenty in number.

Aedes cijicrciis, Mg. Tlic only known species.
Found in marshy spots. I.arva aquatic.

Ciildx, L. The 2 lays about 300 eggs, the imago
requiring a month to acquire full development.

A/ioJihiks, Mg. Rare ; the 9 does not suck
blood.

Corethra, Mg. The larvre of C. plumicoriiis, F.,
and C. adicifortnis, Deg., are well described by
Walker.

Mochlojiyx, Liv., has been recorded as British.

9. Dixida:.

These flies are closely allied to the TipuUdic, with
which a recent authority (Van der Wulp) classes
them. They occur in woods, and on the banks of
streams, usually appearing in the evening.

The larvre live in fungi and decaying wood.
Only two or three species are British, and Dixa with
Orphncphila testacea, Ruthe, forms the group Hetero-
clitac of Walker — both being placed by Schiner with
one or two other allied genera as a group of "uncertain
position." Curt, illustrates D. nebulosa, Mg. (409.)

10. TipiiUdcB.

Over 150 species of this family are British, most
of them being known generally as "daddy long-
legs."

They are very delicate in structure, though many
attain considerable size— the legs of the largest
species when outstretched spanning a greater surface
than those of any other species of Diptera. They
should be pinned immediately after death, especially
if it is desired to set them.

The legs and bodies are much attenuated. The
larvae of some species are aquatic, whilst others feed
on plants or rotten wood. The larva of Tipula
oleracea, L., does immense damage to grass lands.

Most of the genera may be easily distinguished by
the venation. There are three sub-families.

Anal vein absent : Ptychopterince.
Anal vein present.

Mediastinal vein ending in the costal, connected witk sub-
costal by a cross vein ; last joint of palpi shorter or
barely longer than two preceding joints together :
Liiiinobinee.
Mediastinal vein ending in subcostal, no cross vein ; last
joint of palpi longer than three preceding joints together :
Tiptilince.

1. PlycJiopterina. ^Flychopteryx, Mg., frequents
aquatic plants. They are pretty flies, with the wings
generally marked with brown ; the species are rather
more stoutly built than the Tipulina and Limnobince.
P. coiitamiiuita, L., and F. albimana, F., are not
uncommon.

2. Limnobina:. Limiiobia Jlavipes, F., is brown,
with pale grey posterior borders to abdominal
segments. The wings are grey, with lighter patches,
brown veins and a row of brown spots on anterior

border ; legs grey, with black rings on femora and
tibiae. Long 6 mm.

Limnobia occurs chiefly in woods and fields,

Dicranomyia chorea, Mg., is very common, occur-
ring in London all through the summer. It is yellowish
brown, legs pale brown, wings clear, with a brownish
spot on the stigma. Long 6-7 mm.

T?-ickocera regelationis, L., is common everywhere,
occurring in London houses all through the warm
weather. It is a slender, blackish -grey fly, with pale
grey wings, and long, thin, blackish-grey legs. Long
about 4 to 6 mm.

3. Tipulmcc. Tipula oleracea, L., is very common,
the species of this genus being very widely distri-
buted. T. oleracea. Tawny grey, tinged with grey —
sometimes wholly grey, with long tawny legs and
grey wings, and is common everywhere ; known
familiarly as the "daddy long-legs." Long, about
14-15 mm. Variable in size.

Ctenophora, Mg., is a limited genus of large,
handsomely coloured flies, all more or less rare, and
more stoutly built than the rest of the Tipulida:.

They seem to me to be partly allied to Ptychoptera,
Mg. The antennre are deeply pectinated in a
different manner in each species.

Ptychoptera coiifainiiiafa, L., Wlk. iii. PI. xxviii. 7.
Dicranoviyia stigmatica, Mg., Wlk. iii. PI xxvii. 2.
Tipula longicornis, Schum. Curt. 493. Ctenophora
ornata, Mg., Curt. 5.

II. Rhyphidic.

The RhyphidcE pair in the air. They live on over-
ripe fruit, the larva inhabiting cowdung, or, according
to Latreille, in the case of R. feiiestralis. Scop., moist
linen. This species is not uncommon in London (on
windows), and is recognised by its wings being
prettily marked with brown.

They are allied to the Tipulidcc, with which they
have by some authors been incorporated, and as a
rule are only found singly or in pairs.

R. fenestralis. Scop., greyish-brown, with ashy grey
thorax marked with 3 longitudinal dark lines ; face
grey ; eyes and antennae black ; legs tawny brown ;
knees and tarsi more or less black ; wings grey ;
stigma and one or two clouded spots oh fore border,
brown — long 7 mm.

MY PET MARMOSET.

IN May, 1889, I bought a young marmoset {Hapale
penicillatus) in Bahia (Brazil), which since that
time has been my constant companion, and, conse-
quently, under my observation the entire time.

In spite of its comparatively low intelligence, it
has become a most interesting pet ; and to watch its
ways and habits is a constant source of pleasure and
instruction. In Brazil these animals are much valued
as pets by the African women settled there ; and

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

many a one may be seen adorned with a little
necklace, and pair of tiny earrings of gold and coral.
The marmoset is naturally afifectionate, and it soon
becomes attached to its owner.

In the marmoset the emotions of rage, pleasure,
and fear are strongly developed. It exhibits three
distinct states of rage, the changes from one to the
other being abrupt. They are as follows : (i) when
slightly agitated (when shown to a stranger, or if any
attempt be made to forcibly handle her), expressed
by a slight chattering ; (2) a more pronounced stage
(when taken up suddenly by the hand), when she
chatters vigorously, and attempts to bite ; (3) an
extreme stage, when the chattering becomes most
vigorous, alternated frequently with shrill barks, and
determined attempts at biting, the whole body
trembles and is convulsed with fury. I can tell
immediately — if I am not in the same room — the
state she is in from her cries ; but lately she has
entirely given up the third stage, for which I am
thankful, as it could end fatally through the intense
excitement.

Pleasure is expressed by whistling, and a peculiar
little gentle chatter ; when placed in the sun she will
assume all sorts of positions, and extend the limbs,
in order to literally bathe in the sunlight, and will
every now and then give vent to a loud and pro-
longed whistle from a widely distended mouth. I
have been able to produce this state latterly, by
imitating her whistle, when she will answer back.
She will whistle when she is gently caressed and
played with, and she will then be very playful, jump-
ing over your hand in the most eccentric manner,
and pretending to bite, every now and then dashing
off with tail erect, to return again immediately. At
such times she will play hide and seek round a book
or some other object with the greatest zest, and when
caught face to face will stop short and draw the skin
back from the face in a curious manner, as if to make
herself smaller, and so invisible.

Fear is expressed by a sharp high whistle, which
resembles the screeching made by a pencil on a
slate. The sight of a dog will at once cause it to be
uttered. She appears much more timid of a dog
than of a cat ; but when brought face to face with
either will at once assume an attitude of defence, by
raising the body on the hind quarters, and preparing
to use her fore limbs and teeth. The sight of
" Sallie " (the chimpanzee in the Zoo) produced in
her the most abject fear, while she seemed anxious to
attack all the other monkeys.

A looking-glass always amuses her. When looking
at her own reflection she will turn her head round
in a most curious manner, as if to examine the
reflection from all directions ; this movement of the
head will also take place when examining any very
strange object. She is very fond of having the scalp
raised by the fingers, and of having the long black
ear coverts twisted up, and will sit fur hours on my

shoulder, whatever I may be doing. If left alone lor
long, she wears a most dejected air, and will, if
possible, go to bed. At night time she sleeps in a
little flannel bag lined with cotton wool, and it is
amusing, as evening approaches, to see how restless
she becomes. When released from her perch she
will make for the sofa on which is placed the bag,
and coil herself into it, only coming out at dinner
time for some sweets, and then sleeping until it is
daylight again. Should a bell be rung, a faint
whistle may be heard from the bed, although she is
asleep.

In her habits she is extremely clean and regular.
Her staple food is bread and milk, but she is very
fond of insects and fruit, and the sight of apricot jam
causes great excitement, as she likes it better than
anything else. Her weight is nine ounces.

I have never attempted to teach her many tricks,
but my aim has been to try to understand her ways ;
a better way I think of studying animal nature than
by devoting time to teaching tricks — which, after all,
are only learnt in a mechanical and vague manner.
If we try to understand them, we undoubtedly gain
their trust and affection. This timid little marmoset
will follow me about like a dog, though I never
encourage it.

David Wilson-Barker.

A VISIT TO THE BRIGHTON AQUARIUM.
By Edward A. Martin.

IN spite of the care and attention which, in the
interest of the shareholders, is devoted towards
providing dramatic and musical entertainment for
the mental digestion of frequenters of the Brighton
Aquarium, the establishment still retains a high
position as a scientific collection of one of the most
useful divisions of the great vertebrate sub-kingdom.
One can scarcely lay blame on the shoulders of the
directors that the force of circumstances has compelled
them to neglect to a partial extent the true objects for
which the collection was founded. All shareholders
cannot afford to imitate the example of one of their
body, who returned dividends to the amount of a good
many pounds in order that the sum might be devoted
to the needs of pisciculture. The result of the present
policy has been that perhaps not one-eighth of those
who visit the Aquarium are in the slightest degree
interested in the scientific aspect of the institution,
whilst those who are so interested, are content to
remain thankful that through the tolls paid by the
remaining seven-eighths, they are allowed to retain
the place at all as a scientific collection of fish.

It is remarkable that amongst the creatures exhibited
there are found representatives lof each of the five
classes of vertebrates, although the collection* is
nominally one of the "pisces" only. Yet an
Aquarium should be available for the reception of all

HARDWICKE'S SCJENCE-G OSS/P.

57

those creatures which exist in water ; and indeed,
taken in this its widest sense, it is scarcely to be seen
why the authorities have made no efilbrt to introduce
other classes among the invertebrates, one of which is
notably absent, namely, the molluscs. There would
scarcely be anything more interesting than a series of
fanks in which were to be seen crawling about on the
rocky bed, or over the sandy floor, the inhabited shells
of those creatures which we are accustomed to see
lying in cabinets and on mantel-shelves, artificially
polished, and in many cases in sharp contrast to their
dull natural appearance.

Peihaps one of the most interesting tanks is that
devoted to the beautiful Guillemots, or swimming birds,
although few visitors have the opportunity of seeing
ihem at their best. This is at their feeding time,
when they exhibit their wonderful powers of diving.
When the surface of the water, as seen from below,
is perturbed by the almost phosphorescent wavelets,
caused by the birds splashing about and cleaving the
water at full speed in pursuit of their prey, the
sudden transformation of a bird into a fish — for such
it almost appears in the water — is a most striking
sight, and as it cuts through the surface with its beak,
and folds its powerful wings by its side when gliding
through the water with the impetus it has gained, it
sliines with a silver-like glow, as it reflects the rays
which illumine it from above. It seems principally
to use its legs in its under-water propulsion, its tail
doubtless acting the same part as that it plays in true
fishes. The bird has been said to remain beneath the
surface for several minutes.

The strange lazy mud-fish in its table aquarium
scarcely perhaps attracts the attention it deserves,
and yet its life-history is a most important one to the
evolutionist, since it is one of those animals which
supply a found — and not a missing — link between
the Reptilia and the Pisces. In reptiles, the process
fjf breathing is carried on by means of well-developed
iungs, whilst in the fishes proper, the process of
oxygenisation of the blood is brought about by gills,
situated on both sides of the head behind the mouth.
It is scarcely necessary to repeat the fact that fishes
require air just at much as human beings, and that
if placed in water which has been boiled (and of
course cooled), they cannot live, or that if placed in
insufficiently aerated water they can often be seen
breathing the air at the surface of the aquarium. In
our friend the mud-fish, Lepidosiren or Protopterus,
however, there is not only the usual complement of
gills as in fishes, but also lungs, as in reptiles, the
ordinary swimming-bladder of fishes being in this
instance organised as a lung. The happy possession,
therefore, of both ,of these forms of breathing
apparatus, enables it to inhale air both directly
from the atmosphere, and by abstracting it from the
w-ater. In its native haunts it is found inhabiting
the rivers en the west coast of Africa. These at
certain seasons run quite dry. At such times, when

it feels the stream gradually subsiding in which it has
dwelt, and the danger threatens of being stranded
I and exposed to the attacks of its enemies, it has the
habit of burrowing into the soft clay forming the bed
of the stream, and of there hiding itself in the nest it
has formed. As soon as the water has ceased to flow
over its place of refuge it commences to breathe by
means of its lungs, and remains ensconced in its
clayey home, until, with the return of the wet season,
the stream again fills up its deserted bed. By taking
advantage of this nidifying propensity, the fish was
brought to England in the clay in which it had
buried itself, and the nest is now to be seen by the
side of the aquarium in which the creature lives. It
would seem, too, as if it has resumed its fish-like
habits permanently, as no provision appears to have
been made for it in its confined home, by which it
can at all make use of that important organ, its
lungs. This is rather to be regretted, as to the
general public the novel sight of a comparatively
unknown fish living out of water, on a dry soil,
would have proved no doubt interesting and enter-
taining.

Fishes, fossil and recent, are sometimes roughly
classified into two divisions according to the shape
of their tails. Agassiz, the great naturalist, whose
authority on the subject is everywhere recognised,
found that some tails were equal-lobed, as in the
case of the herring, whilst others, as those of the
shark, the skate, and the sturgeon, were unequal-
lobed, and consisted of an elongated upper lobe, into
which the backbone was continued, the lower lobe
being considerably shortened. It is an interesting
fact that, although now but very few living fishes
have tails of the unequal-lobed form, almost all of
the forms of primitive fish-life bore them. During a
period preceding that when the chalk was formed,
fish with equal-lobed tails commenced to live, whilst
the ancient form began to die out. The proportion
of one form to the other now, therefore, is reversed,
whereas homocercal (equal) tails were formerly the
exception, and heterocercal (unequal) tails the rule,
now, with the exception of the sturgeon, shark,
skate, bony-pike, and perhaps a few others, the far
larger proportion are equal-lobed.

The little gar-pike, or bony-pike of the American
rivers, which are now in the Aquarium, are the first of
their species which have been introduced alive into
England, To the energy of Mr. Crane, F.G.S., and
his American friends, the authorities are greatly
indebted in this matter. The gar-pike exhibit well
the ancient form of unequal lobed tail. They attain
a length of several feet, and their vertebral column is
more completely ossified than any living fish. Their
jaws form a long narrow snout, which is armed by a
double series of teeth.

Every schoolboy who has lived in a district where
the chalk-hills form an important feature in the land-
scape, has found at some period or other numerous

58

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

" sharks'-teeth " imbedded in the chalk-i^its. They
form such a well-known fossil that we can judge, to a
certain extent, of the numbers in which sharks lived
in those parts when the chalk was being formed
beneath the sea. These relics of the monsters of the
deep, which then roamed through the sea in our
latitudes, remind us forcibly of the great change which
has come over the inhabitants of these shores. \Ye
have no voracious shark now skirting our British
coasts, lying in wait for a meal of man or beast, as he
would have done in ages gone by. Our waters are
not warm enough for him, and the man-eating
sharks, whose ancestors left their bones and teeth on
the chalky floor of the northern ocean, have now bid
good-bye to these regions, and betaken themselves to
a climate more suited to their taste. The only allied
fish which now remain with us are the various
species of dog-fish. These represent well in structure
the most important points in the dreaded white shark,
although of course very much in miniature.

The order which embraces the sharks and dog-
fishes, also includes the rays and the skates. As I
was watching the tank which contained the latter, a
large individual came floundering from the recesses of
the cavern, and settled itself down on the base of the
tank immediately in front of the glass. As it settled
it seemed to press its two side fins downwards, and
arch its body from side to side, as though to prevent
the under surface of its body coming into contact with
the ground, I noticed that this occurred each time it
settled, so to speak ; and I therefore determined to
watch its under-surface, as it rose, for an explanation
of the position it assumed. An opportunity soon
presented itself, and as the creature rose, it showed on
the under-surface of its body two series of five
branchial openings radiating away from each other
and from its mouth. These openings communicated
with a corresponding number of branchial pouches,
and really constituted its means of breathing. This
was the more apparent, since the openings were
regularly opened and closed by a covering membrane
at intervals of about a couple of seconds' duration.
This at once explained the reason of its peculiar
attitude when on the floor of the tank.

As we pass along the corridors, the interesting
little stickleback claims our attention, and recalls to
mind the ingenious manner in which the male builds
its nest for the reception of his chosen brides. The
gorgeous plumage of the dahlia (Crassicornis) and
carnation (Dianthus) anemones appeal to our aesthetic
and artistic tastes, and we notice how the latter
species have taken to themselves the most prominent
projections of the rocks, to the exclusion of all others
of its fellows. Wc notice the tank of silvery little
whitebait, shining in the artificial light overhead, and
take note of the fact that they have been kept in
captivity until they have grown into true herrings.
The ugly octopi, with their internal skeleton, familiar
to us as the cuttle-bone; the turtles, the affectionate-

looking seals, are amongst the many creatures which-
arrest our attention. We hope fervently that the
aquarium will be able to steer clear of pecuniary
slioals, as it has done in the past, and that there
will be sufficient local spirit to prevent such a
national institution from falling a prey to insolvency..
If unable to pay its way, perhaps Government might
be induced to engraft it on to the Natural History
Department of the British Museum, which should
carry it on as a seaside branch of itself. Perhaps the
Council of the Imperial Institute might be prevailed
upon to become interested in it, and save it from
any possibility of having to close its doors. Were
practical experiments in pisciculture to become the
recognised reason of its existence, even Englishmen
would not begrudge an occasional Government grant
towards its support.

ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS.
No. I.

THE wonders of structure and organisation revealedi
by the Microscope in every department of the
vegetable and animal world, form a chapter of
intensest interest to the thoughtful mind. On the-
one hand we see the whole organised creation built
up of practically identical elements ; on the other,,
the most varied and wonderful adaptations, in every
minute particular, to fit them for their surroundings-
and mode of life. Wonderful and interesting as-
these revelations have undoubtedly been, yet the
discovery of the Rhizopoda, the Infusoria, and Roti-
fera — bringing within our ken, as it were, the
denizens of a new world — far surpasses, to some
orders of mind, all other discoveries. During the
past few years, I have devoted special attention to-
these classes of animals, (particularly the Rotifera),
have systematically "fished" a limited number of
ponds, taking notes in the field, of my captures, and
of the conditions under which they were made, ancJj
I propose in this and subsequent papers to embody-
some, at least, of these notes, in the hope that they
may prove of service to those entering upon the
study of what is colloquially termed, " Pond Life."
As I have now pretty well worked up the Rotifera,
of Rossendale, so that I rarely come across any form
I have not previously drawn and studied, I resolved
to do something in the way of compiling a local list,,
and studying the habits and peculiarities of the
humble Rhizopods of our district. From its known
richness in microscopic life generally, I fully expected,
being able to reap a rich harvest of species, and was
not altogether without hope of adding some new
form, not (previously known to science. Another,
consideration which will naturally recommend this
class to microscopists of curtailed leisure, is the fact,
that it consists only of about seventy species ; a.
number not requiring a great amount of labour iii.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

59

order to get a fair idea of the class. Although I only
commenced the special study of the Rhizopoda about
three months ago, I have already collected over one-
third of the known fresh-water species, so far at least
as these are recorded in Professor Leidy's great work ;
and in addition three or four species apparently
unknown to that authority ; all in four or five
l^laces, within a mile of my own house. In future
papers I propose to describe these forms, and to give
drawings of the principal varieties, in order to
revive an interest in a somewhat neglected class of
animals.

The Rhizopoda are microscopic beings, the
majority of which are invisible to the naked eye ;
they are essentially aquatic, being found in ponds,
<litches, lakes, marshes, bogs, and in the sea. They
appear to have been the first representatives of
animal life on earth ; and if the theory of evolution
be correct, they represent our own remotest ancestors.
They constitute a class of micro-organisms of the
most simple character ; there is no distinction of
tissues or organs, but their animal substance is homo-
geneous, contractile and translucent, resembling a
tenaceous mucus or soft tremulous jelly. This jelly
•substance, in the living state, is constantly changing
its form by expanding at one or several points into
processes of ever-varying dimensions, arrangement,
and number. These are used as organs of locomotion
and prehension, and frequently branch. From the
appearance of these temporary organs resembling
roots, this class of animal has received its name of
J\.hizopoda, literally, root-footed. Generally speak-
ing, especially in the naked forms, this colourless
jelly includes coloured food-particles, principally
microscopic algae in various stages of digestion, and
tnumercus globules, granules, and various foreign
particles, such as sand-grains, all of which tend to
diminish the transparency of the animal, and often
impart considerable colour. The internal portion of
the animal appears somewhat more fluid than the
•exterior, although in no case is there a true mem-
branous covering. The terms endosarc and ectosarc
are used to express this difference, which is more
marked in the Order Lobosa than in any other.
JNIany of the animals are capable of enclosing them-
selves in a shell or test of various figure, consistence,
and complexity, and such variations serve to separate
the Rhizopods into families and genera. The
testaceous forms include the charming Foraminifera
and Polycystina, the exquisitely beautiful shells of
which are formed in the one case of carbonate of
lime, and in the other of silica of most glassy
transparency ; but as these are (with one exception)
exclusively marine in their habitats, we omit all
further reference to them in these papers. The
fresh- water Rhizopods form their tests or shells of a
variety of materials ; some of a horn-like substance
■ called Chitine, similar to that which gives strength
to the integument of insects ; others form neat, box-

like cases, made up of minute sand-grains or of
diatoms, separately or mixed ; while another section,
having made a further advance in architecture,
build up their tests of rounded, oval, or rectangular
plates, of chitinous or silicious material, which, over-
lapping in various ways, form definite patterns. Our
district is fairly rich in these charming forms ;
although the greater number of them are inhabitants
of sphagnous swamps. In most of the genera there
is a more or less granular spot called the nucleus,
which is considered as the centre of vital activity.
Many authorities attach great importance to the
presence or absence of this organ, but it is, I believe,
a fact, that in the lowly organisms we are now
considering, it cannot always be demonstrated, and
in some cases is undoubtedly absent. There is,
however, another organ which is rarely absent —
sometimes indeed there are considerably more than one
(in Arcella, for instance) viz., a contracting vesicle ;
this presents itself as a "clear, colourless, or pale
roseate sphere, which is observed very slowly to
enlarge, then rapidly to collapse, and for a moment
to disappear, again to reappear, commonly in the
same position." This occurs with a certain degree
of regularity. The phenomenon is remarkable, and
probably serves a respiratory, and possibly an
excretory function.

A few words on classification, which is simple, and
easily mastered, will suitably conclude this introduc-
tory paper. The class is divided into five orders :
Protoplasta ; Heliozoa ; Radiolaria ; Foraminifera ;
and Monera. The first order is divided into two sub-
orders, Lobosa and Filosa j the former with thick,
finger-like, or lobose processes or pseudopods ; the
latter with filamentous or thread-like pseudopods.
The fresh-water Rhizopods are, with one or two
exceptions, contained in the first two orders. Proto-
plasta lobosa has eleven genera and about forty-three
species, and contains such well-known forms as
Amoiba, Difflugia and Arcella ; P. filosa has six
genera, and about seventeen species, many of them
most charming animals, having most beautifully built-
up tests ; Heliozoa contains eleven genera and about
fifteen species. While the order Foraminifera has but
two fresh-water species, Gromia turricola and Biomyxa
vagans. Monera, constituted by Haeckel to contain
those Rhizopods destitute of nuclei, may be discarded,
as many of the forms for which it was created
(Foraminifera, &c.) have been proved to be nucle-
ated. This gives us thirty genera, and about seventy-
seven species. I have little doubt, however, from
my own limited experience, that this number might
be materially increased if Microscopists would only
pay some attention to this interesting but neglected
class of animals. In ray next contribution, I propose
to describe the Rossendale forms of the naked, lobose
Protoplasts.

J. E. Lord.

Rowtenstall .

6o

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE OF
SCOTLAND.

By Chas. Wardingley.

THIS group of rocks has been variously termed
" Encrinital," " Productus " and "Mountain "
imestone, and in every case the synonyms have been
characteristically applied. The broader term " Car-
boniferous" is, however, to be preferred, as it will more
appropriately include all the varieties of limestone
tleposited between the close of the Old Red Sandstone
period and the commencement of the Permian. The
group is decidedly one of the most interesting of the
iossiliferous deposits of Scotland, and besides, affords
an excellent field of study to the practical geologist.
Outcrops occur in the large area extending from the
north-east of Fife to the south-west of Dumfries. In
these counties, and in Roxburgh, Haddington,

desire to investigate the rocks for themselves, we
may divide the field occupied by the Carboniferous
Limestone into two sections, the Forth district, and
the Dumfriesshire district. The former affords the
greater number of accessible exposures, and besides
its geological features presents many other attractions
equally interesting to the tourist of scientific tastes
who desires to indulge in a variety of out-door
studies.

The above rough sketch introduces us to the
limestone exposures adjacent to or within the Fortli
district, where the beds lie either immediately above
the Lower Coal Measures, or alternatively above the
Calciferous Sandstone Series. The total thickness of.
the beds does not exceed 90 feet, even including the
freshwater deposit familiarly known as the Burdie-
house Limestone. This is a great contrast to the-
enormous thickness of the limestone of Englandj,

1

1

Q SCALE OF MILES 10

TORPHICHIN Jt

HILLS ^r^"^

$1^ oBATKGATE

CILMERTON o

OBURDIEHOUSE

^DUNBAR

OXHALLo If).
MAINS "XJCATS CRAGS

Fig. 36. — Map showing Carboniferous Lirr.estone exposures in the Firth of Forth district.

Edinburgh, and Linlithgow, it appears chiefly — as in
England, capping the various hills and ridges, having
to a considerable extent escaped by its hardness the
denuding and wasting influences which have worn
down the more friable sandstones. Compact and
durable, it has ofi'ered the sternest opposition to the
destructive powers of air, frost, and rain, with this
result, that while representatives of other formations
have been levelled to its base — the Carboniferous
Limestone still stands boldly and sharply out, its
peaks and ridges appearing to bid defiance to the
con<|uering power which has worked such havoc
among less resisting strata.

To the student of geology the group is probably the
most unmistakable of the stratified rocks, and yielding
as it does a large variety of economic products, its
industrial importance can scarcely be over-rated.
For the convenience of tliose who may at any time

where in several places, notably Ashbourne, in
Derbyshire, the total depth is over 1,500 feet. The
main mass of the Scotch limestone usually occurs in
thick beds, with but little shale [.between, and with
few exceptions is of the grey colour so familiar to
geologists who have worked the limestone deposits on
the south-western slopes of the Pennine range at
Chatburn, Clitheroe, and Whalley. Possibly the
best and most typical exposures will be found in Fife,
at Invertiel, i^ mile west of Kirkcaldy, and again at
Charleston, 5 miles west of the northern terminus of
the Forth bridge. At Invertiel it is seen lying upon
the Calciferous Sandstone, cropping out some 70 or
75 feet above the level of the sea, with the strike
running from N.W. to S.E. and with an E.N.E. dip
angle of 15°. The thickness of the exposed limestone
is about 30 feet, and for the greater part consists of
massive compact layers interspersed with thin seams

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

6i

of darker-coloured calcareous shales. Mineralogically
considered the rock is sub-crystalline, with an irregular
or amorphous cleavage, and not unfrequently exhibits
a splintery fracture, while its general hardness may
be taken at 2"8 and its specific gravity at 2' 5. It
tlVervesces rapidly in acid, is almost infusible before
the blowpipe at an ordinary heat, though it parts with
its carbonic acid very readily, shines with a vivid
brightness, and ultimately becomes quicklime. The
following may be accepted as a rough analysis of the
limestone proper.

Carbonic acid 42*0

Lime 48 'o

Magnesia 2'o

Alumina 2"o

SiHca 3*5

Various (sulphur, oxide of iron, &c.) 2'5

lOO'O

The rock generally has the appearance of being
built up or composed of Entrochi (wheelstones) or

Fig. 37.— Stem of
Entrochi.

Fig. 38.— Stem of Platyori-
nns la-vis (nat. size).

Fig. 3<3.— Plate of Archieoci-
dan's nrii (nat. size).

Fig. 40. — Joint of Encrinite
("St. Cuthbert's Bead")
(nat. size).

remains of Encrinites, a variety of Crinoid wonder-
fully numerous in this formation. These marine
animals closely resembled plants, hence the name
" stone lilies," and, like plants, were fixed to one spot.
They consisted of innumerable articulating joints
placed one above another upon a base or root attached
to the sea-bottom. This stem, often several feet in
length, was surmounted by a cup-shaped arrangement
(pelvis) containing the body of the animal, from which
issued long jointed tentacula or fingers, capable of
being extended horizontally for the purpose of allow-
ing it to catch its prey. Not unfrequently the stems
consisted, as in the species Moniliformis, of several
thousand Entrochi or joints, and through the whole
series ran an alimentary canal connecting the base
with the stomach. The holes in the.joints caused by
the existence of this canal suggested to the former

inhabitants of some limestone districts the idea of
their having at one time been beads, and indeed they
have often been used as such. It is to these that Sir
Walter Scott alludes in " Marmion."

"On a rock by Lindisfarn,
St. Cuthbert sits and toils to frame
The sea-born beads that bear his name."

Myriads of these Encrinite stems and joints, the
latter varying in diameter from a Hne to an inch, are
crowded into the limestone of Invertiel and other
places, though the most perfect examples are those
found in the looser calcareous shale. The Encrinite is
never found entire at this and adjoining quarries, but
bases and parts of the pelvis and tentacula are by
no means rare. Other characteristic fossils found
here include, Cyathocriims planus, C. tiibercnlatus^

Fig. 41. — Stem of Potcriocrinus crassns. (From Taylor's
("Common British Fossils.")

C. riigosus, Platycrimis Iczvis, Foieriocrtjms iennisy
Cyathophyllum turbinatuiii. Plates of Af'chiBocidaris
tirii, Faiestella mcmbranacea, Prodiutits longispinus^
P. semiretictdaUis, Spirifera lincata, S. glabra, S,
trigonalis, Orthis Mitchiliiii.

The plates of the Archteocidaris are usually found
singly in the looser shale, and are highly interesting
as being the remains of one of the very earliest forms
of the family Cidaris {Echinodermata). These will
probably be far better understood by breaking in
pieces and comparing the separate sections or plates

02

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

•of one of our estuarine echinoderms, say the Echina
-sphcera.

It may be mentioned that on the shore within a
mile from this quarry is an excellent illustration of
the change which a sedimentary rock undergoes by
contact with an igneous one. In a narrow stretch of
coast-line not more than a furlong in length we have
a sandstone gradually developing into a quartz rock,
yet so imperceptibly does the change take place as to
■completely defeat any attempt to locate the spot at
■which the sandstone ends and the quartz rock begins.

Directly north of Invertiel, about 15 miles distant,
is the East Lomond Hill, rising 1,471 feet above the
level of the sea. The lower and middle portion of
this hill, which was in 1881 one of the chief stations
■of the Ordnance Survey, is composed of Calcareous
.Sandstone, representing probably some of the lower
beds of the English carboniferous rocks, but at the
Jieight of 1, 200 feet the limestone crops out and forms

Tig. 42. — Fencstella
iiionbranacea.

Fig. 43. — Or this rcsupinata.

5^ig. 44. — Spirifera tr {go-
nates, showing internal
coil.

Fig. 45. — Product Its punctatus.
(From Taylor's " Common British Fossils.")

a belt over 12 feet thick, the rock inclining gently to
the south-east.

It is worthy of note that this is one of the highest

situated exposures in Scotland from which fossils have

:as yet been obtained. In many places the limestone

is quite bare, with no soil or covering above it, and

yet from a thin bed of stone or " blae," quite a large

Tiumber of shells may be seen, of forms varied and

perfect, and but little injured or weathered by their

long exposure to the atmosphere. They, however,

usually break whenever an attempt is made to

■extract them from the matrix, and it is only by

exercising the greatest perseverance and patience that

fairly good specimens of any of the numerous forms

■of Productus, Spirifera, RhynconcUa, etc., can be

carried away. Over a century ago this hill was

worked for lead, which in the form of galena also

yielded silver. The ore, now unprofitable for work-

angj was massive and in hexahedral crystals.

In the west of Fife are the limestone quarries of
Limekilns and Charleston, about a mile apart. At
the former place the rock was worked so long ago as
the 17th century, and must have been an important
article of industry and commerce even fifty years
ago. Its value to this once thriving village may be
better understood by mentioning that from 1840 to
1S50 the average annual output of limestone exceeded

Fig. 46.— Clisiophyllum. (From Taylor':
FosbiU.')

' Common British

Pig. 47.— Transverse section of Clisiophyllum.

15,000 tons, while the value of the raw material
previous to burning and shipment amounted to
nearly ;iC4000. The rock has been wrought from the
face of the outcrop, north-east to south-west, and veiy
close to the shore. Step by step the workings have
been carried westwards towards Charleston, the site
of the present very restricted operations. The result
is that the appearance of the coast-line for upwards of

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

a mile has been altogether changed. Instead of a
gradually rising shore or "talus," we have a thin
stretch of undulating ground, backed by a steep
precipitous ridge or clift' in several places upwards of
1 20 feet high. This is one of many such examples
which help to show us how very greatly the aspect
of a locality may be permanently changed by mining
or quarrying operations conducted from the surface.
The exposure consists generally of several beds of
limestone dipping to the north-west at an angle of
12°, the visible depth being about 60 feet. These
beds in their turn are covered by 35 feet of shale
more argillaceous than carboniferous in its composi-
tion. The limestone in appearance is very similar to
that already described, the colour perhaps being a

On the south side of the Forth we have the rock
again exposed in the quarries north-east of the
important mining district of Bathgate. The ridge or
series of hills locally known as the Torphichens form-
part of the south rim of the Forth basin, and rise to
a height of 600 feet above the sea-level. The lime^
stone in this neighbourhood consists of a series of
beds 60 feet thick, is ot the usual grey colour, but
somewhat softer in texture, yielding more readily to
weathering influences, and becomes of a black -yellow
tint on decomposition. Possibly to the student just
commencing his researches among the Carboniferous
limestone no better locality than that of Bathgate
could be desired, as the exposures are both numerous
and easy of access, while the profusion of organic

Fig. 48. — Comtlaria qjiadris7dcaia.

Fig. 49. — Spirifera striata, b and c showing internal coils.

Fig. 50. — Prodiictus gigantens.
(From Taylor's "Common British Fossils.")

shade darker owing to the presence in the rock of a
small percentage of naphtha. Organic remains are
^omewhat rare in the lower beds, but of those
occasionally found most are in a fairly satisfactory
state of preservation. The upper massive beds yield
good and large Produdjis loiigispiiiiis, P. simiatiis,
P. martini, and P. Jimbriatiis ; the thin beds of
calcareous shale contain species of Tubipora,
Cyathophylhim, Clisiophylhitii, Turbinolia, Fungitcs,
(sheep's-horn), and various parts of dispersed en-
crinites ; while from the nodules of red-coloured
argillaceous ironstone found in the upper " blaes "
the writer has obtained very perfect and well-defined
specimens of Conularia qiiadrisiilcata, Ort/iis resiipi-
nata, Spirifera Uneata, and Strophomena sp.

remains is such as to lend every encouragement to
those who desire to wield hammer and chisel to
advantage. At present, operations in the once
extensively worked ([uarries are all but stopped in
consequence of the small demand for lime and the
keen competition of more favourably situated lime-
works. But it is impossible to wander among the
various workings without noticing on every hand
signs of the great amount of material which has been
extracted. Lead was at one time obtained here in.
small though not very continuous veins, and this in
turn yielded a small percentage of silver. The
argentiferous ore was long worked in one of the
quarries still bearing the name of " Silver Mine,"
situated a few hundred yards north-west of the

64

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

reservoir immediately above the town, and near to the
Bathgate and Linlithgow road. After yielding a
comparatively large quantity of silver it ultimately
ceased to give a supply great enough to be remunera-
tive, and operations at length were suspended. In
1 87 1 further explorations were made, and several
deeper pits with numerous ramifications opened, but
beyond obtaining a small and unsatisfactory amount
of lead, silver, and platinum ore, the venture was
unsuccessful, and i the place was finally abandoned.
Evidence was, however, adduced during the search,
which proved conclusively that the same vicinity had
been worked for silver so far back as the 15 th and
i6th centuries. The specimens now to be obtained
comprise barytes (heavy-spar) calc-spar, pearl-spar,
and dolomite, while a closer examination among the
seams of friable limestone will be rewarded by the
discovery here and there of small pieces of lead ore,
zinc ore, and pyrites. The fossils, as we have already
mentioned, are very numerous, and almost every stone
wall in the immediate neighbourhood bears witness
to this statement. But while the specimens are so

Fig. 51. — Tooth of Rhizodus Hibberti.

very general it cannot be said that the species are
proportionably varied. Productus giganteiis, Cyatho-
crinus planus, and Platycrimis lavis are unusually
common, the first mentioned being present in such
quantities as to cause the rock to be well qualified for
the name " Productus " limestone. In fact, it seems
more abundant here than in any other series of
quarries under our notice, but it is unfortunately
very difficult to extract. Other fossils obtainable
include Spirifera striata, (comparatively rare in
Scotland), Productus sctnireticulatus, and the Polyzoa
Fenestella vtemhraiiacca.

Before taking leave of the carboniferous limestone
of the Forth district, it is necessary for us to consider
briefly a sub-deposit exposed at Burdiehouse, New-
bigging, and other places, to which the terms

" Encrinital," " Productus," and " Mountain " would
be altogether inappropriate, but which must certainly
be included under the term " Carboniferous." This
deposit, commonly known as the Burdiehouse Lime-
stone, was first brought prominently before geologists
by the late Dr. Hibbert in 1835. It has a dull,
earthy, light blue appearance, is exceedingly hard and
brittle, breaks with a conchoidal fracture, and the beds
vary in thickness from 20 to 30 feet. Where found,
it usually occurs alternating with oil-producing shales,
directly above the calciferous sandstones, and to a
limited extent contains fossils common to both rocks,
notably Sphenopteris affuiis and S. bifida. From the
nature of the embedded remains it has been con-
sidered to be of fresh-water or estuarine origin.
Remains of microscopic Crustacea closely resembling
in general structure those at present existing in fresh-
water lakes abounding in decaying vegetable matter,
occur in myriads.- Teeth of ganoid fish, Rhizodus
Hibberti, and of Callopristodon pcctiiiatis, and
Nematoptychius sp. are occasionally found, the first-
named being usually very perfect.

Though this formation is particularly enticing to
the palEeontologist, it may not be altogether out of
place to warn the student against building up a too
exaggerated idea of what he may be able to obtain
from the rock during a chance visit of two or three
hours' duration. It is quite possible that he may
succeed in becoming the possessor of a good-sized
specimen of tooth of Rhizodus or other fish, but it is
equally probable that he may have to remain satisfied
with less enticing relics, made up, perhaps, of some of
the more common fern remains. If, however, the place
visited be Burdiehouse itself, he will be able to find
something to reflect upon during his journey back to
Edinburgh (five miles) by knowing that the quarry and
its contents have been studied by the eminent geolo-
gists, Sir Roderick Murchison, Hugh Miller, Agassiz,
and Drs. Fleming and Buckland.

{To be continued.)

FAMINE IN THE LAND.

WE may gather from the accounts and papers
and " Imperial Gazetteer " that the following
were years of famine in India :— 1396 to 1407, 1460,
1520, 1629-31, 1650, 1686, 1746, 175s, 1759, and 60,
1770, 1773. 1783, 1790-92, 1803, 1807 and 13,
1824,1833, 1838, 1845, 1847,1854, i86oand6i, 1866,
1869, 1873 and 74, 1876-1878. In the Delhi market
the price of wheat, according to Mr. Stanley Jevons,
was highest in 1763, 1773, 1783, 1792, 1803, 1809 and
12, 1820 and 26, 1834 ; between which dates and
the sun-spot series there is a more or less exact coinci-
dence, some local displacement being marked by the
years 1792 and 1872. Famines in India, then, may
be expected at the epochs of most and fewest sun-
spots, and corn in particular, where grown, may be

A LEAF FROM THE BOOK OF FATE.
Written in the Sun-Spots.

"Decidimus quo pius .^^.neas quo dives Tullus et Ancus, PiiKis et umbra sunnis,"— HoR.

m

m

M

M

m

m

m

M

M

M

M

m

M

M

m

m

M

m

M

M

m

M

m

M

m

m

M

m

M
m
M
M

324 Alexander the Great dies, 323.
335 Alexander the Great, 336.

365 I Perdiccas the Third.
387 Ptolemy, 388.
412 Archelaus, 413.

423 , Darius the Second.

1

445 . Tribunicia Potestus, 446.

453 Date of Daniel.

464 Artaxerxes.

486 Leges agrarian ; Darius dies.

508 Tarquinius Superbus deposed, 509.

522 Madness and death of Cambyses.

530 Cambyses, 529.

574 Tyre taken.

577 ' Tarquinius Priscus dies, 579.

588 I Destruction of Jerusalem.

596 Aurora Borealis ; Ezekiel ; Eclipse, 597

599 Jehoiakim dies.

607 I Nineveh destroyed, 606.

618 Ancus Martius dies.

632 Cyrene founded by Delphian Oracle.

640 j Tullus Hostilius dies ; 641, Josiah.

643 1 Manasseh dies, 644 ; Amon, 642.

662 I Gyges dies, 663.

Insurrection in Assyria.

Hezekiah dies ; Assaranadina, 699.

Tarentum founded, 707.

687
698
706
709

717

Deioces ; Merodach-baladin deposed,
710.

Romulus dies.

720 Fall of Samaria, 721.

728
739

Ahaz dies.
Pekah murdered.

m

m

M

M

M

m

M

m

m

M

m

M

m

M

m

M

m

M

m

M

m

M

M

M

m

M

M

M

m

Mi

m

m

742

753
761
772
784
786
805
808
819
S38
841
882

Ahaz ; Tiglath-pileser.

Romulus, 754.

Uzziah and Menahem die, 759.

Zechariah assassinated, 773.

Jeroboam the Second dies.

Famine of Amos, 787.

Plague in Assyria.

Circa, depositions, plague in Assyria.

Shalmaneser V. dies, 8x8.

Joash slain.

Jehoahaz died, 840.

Jehoram murdered, 8S3.

885 Jehoram dies, 884.

893
896

904

Famine in Samaria.

The prophets urge Ahab to battle.

Shalmaneser, 905.
007 j Elijah's famine ; visits Horeb.
915 I Jehosaphat, 914.

918

926

929

937

959

1014

1017

1047

1058

1068

1094

1256

1489

1709

Ahab.

Omri.

Elah murdered ; Baasha died, 930.

Binlikhish IL dies, 936.

Rehoboam dies, 958.

Solomon, 1015.

"The angel at the threshing-place."

" A sound in the mulberry tops."

Saul dies, 1056.

Codrus ; Inarchus, 1856.

Saul, 1095.

" The angel at the threshing-place."

Sinai, Burning Bush, and Plagues,
1491.

Joseph's famine, 1707.

is founded on the conception of the periodical recurrence of Famines, and may be extended,
mployed is the Mean Sun-Spot one of Astronomy, which here represents the Jubilee Years,

This Table
The notation emj

Prophetical Numbers, and other dark Figures in general. The passage from most to fewest sun-spots is
calculated as transpiring every eleven years, the epoch of Fewest (m) being indicated eight years after each
maximum (M).

66

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

expected to rise in price. Locusts multiplied in 1812
and 13, 1822, 1834, 1843 and 44, 1865, 1868 and 69,
1S77-79, that is at the period of fewest sun-spots,
a rule that appears to hold good for the entire
Northern Hemisphere. I once endeavoured to ascer-
tain the destructive species, but could meet with no
corresponding enthusiasm in the matter. According
to Toaldo, the price of wheat in Lombardy was
highest in 1685, 1690, 1693, 1696 and 1700, 1709 and
1715, 1722, 1729, 1735, 1739, 1743 and 47, 1756,
1 759 and 63, 1766, 1773, 1778; dates which will serve
to show how a general law locally varies.

Horace hears the winter breakers pounding the sea
cliffs, and scolds Leuconoe for trying the Babylonian
numbers, and chaunteclere has been known to twit
Madame Pertelote as being at the root of the matter.
But when the air grows soft on the springing corn we
need no longer sigh over the hidden fate of Romulus,
Tullus, or Ancus, for these dire numbers stand in the
margin of everybody's Bible, could anyone suggest
how to consult them to any profit. Certainly if we
commence B.C. 588 and add eight and three alter-
nately we may calculate out a very perfect table of
destiny for the kings of Judah and Israel, so that like
some warning prophet we might have loomed on each
in turn and propounded the alternative of a seven
years' war, a famine, a distemper or an abdication ;
or we may if desirable begin B.C. 1014 and compute
by adding the sevens, but in this case the dates will
be less nearly approximated. Proceeding by either
method, we infallibly arrive at one or the other of the
cardinal dates' of the Prophet Daniel employed in
astrological predictions, and continuing down to our
own times, it will become self evident that the'Jubilee
dates of the Bible, taken as they stand, represent the
mean series of most and fewest sun-spots. Possessing
such a table, we shall awake to the same dark shadows
playing everywhere over the open page of history,
notably embodied in the rush of the barbarians over
the rustling corn-lands of the west at the decline of the
Roman Empire, a battle-cry of famine, nowhere so
photophoned as in the burden of the valley of
Jehosaphat, when the earthquake roars and the sun
dons its noontide sackcloth ; ' Hamonim, harmonim,
bemek hacharutz,' whose refrain as the moon arises
red we catch in ' canes ululare per umbram.'

' We are seven,' said Wordsworth's smart school-
girl : they are seven, was then the dark song of fate ;
the child sneezed its seven times. But there must have
been room for a range of opinion, for on one of the
Assyrian signets the king stands before his burning
tree crowned with the seven-rayed sun, which has the
adjunct of eight pomegranate-like side cressets, and
so very confident is he in his arrangement, that he
holds what looks like a bell-rope communicating
with the Deity, in apparent disregard of a priest
opposite, who tugs just such another ; the reverse is
seen in the resourceless monarch who weeps over the
face of the prophet exclaiming, ' O thou chariot of

Israel and horseman thereof.' Two arrows fly tO'
glitter in the sun, five or six blows are struck on the
land of milk and honey, though the medieval al-
chemist would have transmuted all to gold from
spirits four and bodies seven, and Josephus thinks
that the arrows were necessarily three. Is this thy
place, sad city, this thy throne, where the wild desert
rears its craggy stone, while suns unblest their angry
lustre fling? we feel ever ready to exclaim, inured to
the smooth, uneven, star and planetarj' stops of a
brilliant millennium, that warms in the sun, refreshes
in the breeze, glows in the stars, and blossoms in the
trees ; though even in our green native lanes, far
remote from throne or senate, we do all unawares
encounter the white-winged angel as our destiny, in
the shape of a barking cough, bronchitis, rack of
nerve or muscle, prelusive of the end. On the 29th.'
of April, 1882, it was truly painful to behold the seared,
and blooming cheeks of nature, the greenwood
scorched and withered on its southern aspect, as
though scathed with flames, or languishing in the
breath of autumn that benumbs the bumbles on the
thistle tufts. The aristocratic elms stood like ragged-
foresters rayed half green, half umber ; the horse
chestnuts and hawthorns showed piteously their white-
china flowers from among sienna leaves ; the oaks ia
flower and leaf looked as though hung on the sunnier
side with charred paper, leprous with an orange
fungus ; the limes and sycamores had their leaves
shrivelled. In the neighbourhood of the tropics these
stormy winds whirl the dust-storms over hot sands, in
their furnace breath the top of Carmel withers, there:
is a galloping in the trees, the locusts teem, and the-
five-and-twenty prophets come forth to gaze at the
sun arising on Olivet, and exclaim, 'This is the
cauldron and we are the flesh.' The Indian statistics-
show that behind a drought does not necessarily stalk
a famine, but Mallet's tables render it perfectly clear
that eruptions and earthquakes occur in spells at the
epochs of most and fewest sun spots. In vain was-
Catherine mangled and borne through mid-air to saint
a Sinai that does not glow, for the gentler sex remain
of opinion that a blazing mountain admonishes the
earth ; Proserpina has left us a nosegay, and Agatha
her veil, such were ever the resort of the prophet and
the seer in evil times. According to an author
quoted, Julianus states that in the reign of king
Theodoric, when his wife's grandfather was returning
by sea from Sicily to Italy, the ship stopped at one ot
the Lipari islands, where a hermit told him that
Theodoric was dead. The hermit knew the fact from
having seen the king, on the previous day, dragged
between John the Pope and Symmachus the patrician^
ungirt, unshod, and in chains, and thrown into the
crater of the volcano. The kinsman of Julianus made
a note of the day, and found, on his arrival in Italy,
that Theodoric had died at the time of the appearance
described by the hermit. It may be remarked that
John and Symmachus had been put to death by

HARDWl CKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSJF.

67

Theodoric ; albeit the date 526 a.d. is fatal, and the
coincidence certainly striking. It is a little singular
"that Professor Sayce, in translating the allegory of
.Bel and the Dragon, should not have recognised in it
a. base version of the Jewish lawgiving, the Assyrian
tables being of moral import and not of moral weight,
the shadow and fruit of that golden tree whose gay
Ausions of the earth's childhood are still the bane and
perdition of our modern culture. The meteorology
and geology patched together infallibly outlines in
barbarous hauruspid style the ruddy clouds, the
lightnings, the belching, the red lava, and the terrific
reflexion of the volcano. ' None among the gods
surpasses thy power ; as an adornment he has founded
the shrine of the Gods, which is become thy home,
O thou that avengest us. May thy destiny, O Lord,
go before the gods, and may they confirm the destruc-
tion and the creation of all that is said. Set thy
aiiouth, may it destroy the plan ; turn, speak to him,
4ind let him produce again his plan. Go, they said,
;and cut off the life of Tiamet ; let the winds carry her
blood to secret places. They showed his path and
they bade him listen and take the road. He made
the club to swing, the bow and the quiver he hung at
Jiis side ; he set the lightning before him, with a
glance of swiftness he filled his body. She recites an
incantation, she casts a spell. Bel made an evil wind
to enter, so that she could not close her lips. The
violence of the winds tortured her stomach, and her
heart was prostrated and her mouth twisted. He
swung his club, he shattered her stomach, he cut out
her entrails ; he mastered her heart. The elevenfold
offspring are troubled through fear. And he took
from him the tables of destiny. He lit up the sky,
the sanctuary rejoiced. Bel measured the offspring
of the deep, he established the upper firmament as
his image.' In Syria during a famine when a change
•of dynasty was contemplated, a prophet, we are told,
resorted to a cave in Mount Horeb. A strong wind
lent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks
before Jehovah ; after the wind came an earthquake
and after the earthquake a fire ; when Moses ascended
Sinai at the delivery of the law, ' the smoke thereof
ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole
mountain quaked greatly.' It is the precedent to
cast dates from an Astronomical canon : that of the
Alexandrine astronomers gives the follor/ing dates for
the kings of Assyria, commencing at Cyrus, B.C. 53S,
555. 559. 561. 604, 625, 647, 667, 680, 688, 692,
■693. 699, 722, 724, and 729 ; the one enclosed will
cast with but small deviation and error those of
Israel and Judah. If winds and earthquakes are
•regarded, then, as an expression of the Divine will,
.and these are found to be in turn caused by the sun ;
it is difficult to see how the sun and stars can be ex-
cluded, save there exist some incomprehensible dis-
tinction between judicial cosmology and judicial
astronomy.

A. H. SWINTON.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

We would draw the special attention of our readers
to an article in the last number of the " Annals and
Magazine of Natural History," by Professor Ruken-
thal, " On the Adaptation of Mammalia to Aquatic
Life." He believes the toothed whales and the whale-
bone whales have each had a separate origin and
development.

The last number of the Fcnille des Jcunes Natura-
listes has a capital and comprehensive article by M.
Billet on " Notions Elementaires de Bacteriologie."

We are pleased to announce that the valuable notes
and memoranda of the veteran Norfolk geologist, the
late Mr. John.Gunn, will shortly be published, under
the title of "Memorials of John Gunn." It cannot
fail to be a deeply interesting book.

Part 10 of "The Canary Book," by R. L.
Wallace, and part 10 of " British Cage Birds," by the
same author, are to hand (London : L. Upcott Gill).
Both parts are well up to their high mark.

We have received number 106 of Wesley's
" Natural History and Scientific Book Circular,"
containing 48 pp., all of which are devoted to works
on Botany.

A WORK of much labour as well as of love is the
Rev. E. N. Blomfield's .'brochure on " The Lepidop-
tera of Suffolk," published by W. Wesley & Son.
It runs to 60 pp., and is a model of careful exactness,
due to vast painstaking.

At a meeting of the Institut de France (Academic
des Sciences), Paris, held on December 29th, Dr. A.
B. Griffiths, F.R.S.E., F.C.S. (an old contributor
to Science-Gossip), was awarded an _," honourable
mention" in connection with the Prix Montyon
which is given annually for researches in experimental
physiology and physiological chemistry.

An interesting addition has just been made to our
British Pleistocene fauna by Doctor Leeson's dis-
covery of a portion of the skull of the Saiga antelope
{Saiga tartarka) in the Thames graves at Twicken-
ham. Its remains had previously been found in the
caverns of France and Belgium.

A new fossil wading bird has been found in the
cretaceous rocks of Sweden, and named Scanioriiis
Liidgreni.

The next International Congress of Geologists
will assemble at Washington, U.S.A., on the 26th
of August, after the meeting of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, which will
be held the week before. It is expected that the
committee will be able to obtain from the ocean
steamship lines very favourable terms for foreign

68

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

members. The secretaries are Messrs. II. S. Wil-
liams and S. F. Emmons, Washington.

Mr. E. H. Hankin, of St. John's College,
Cambridge, is said to have discovered a cure for
anthrax, to the study of which disease he has devoted
himself many years. He based his investigations
upon the principle of lymph inoculation, which Dr.
Koch has so successfully applied in the case of
tuberculosis. The glycerine extract in Mr. Hankin's
process is precipitated with alcohol and re-dissolved
in water. The experiment has been repeated on a
number of subjects with gratifying success. This
discovery derives additional interest from the fact
that anthrax is not the only disease from which rats
(the spleen of which animal produces the protective
proteid) enjoy immunity.

A French chemist, according to the "Daily
News" of February nth, claims to have discovered
the true process of photographing in correct colours.

We are glad to see that the " Oological Expedi-
tion " to the Shetland Isles, projected in Birmingham,
will not be allowed to take place. The question
came up in Parliament on February 17th. Vandalism
of this kind ought to have no mercy shown it.

We are sorry to record the death of an old contri-
butor to our columns in Dr. 11. B. Brady, F.R.S.,
&c., of Newcastle. Dr. Brady was distinguished for
his large and specialistic knowledge of the Forami-
nifera, and Fossil and recent, on which he wrote
several monographs, including the two superb quarto
vols, on the Foraminifera of the "Challenger"
expedition. He died at the comparatively early age
of55-

MICROSCOPY.

The Vertical Camera. —Referring to a note I
sent you about the use of the Vertical camera, I
have received a letter from Messrs. Beck giving me
full instructions. It only came to hand by last mail,
and I see from it that the use of a slope is what they
recommend. This I did not know when I wrote to
you, and a notice in an old number of the " American
Monthly Microscopical Journal " (on the distortion,
apparently irremediable, incidental to one of the
American forms of camera) rather served to mislead
me. There is nothing new in the slope, and if you
have not already consigned my note to the waste
paper basket, pray do so. — JV. y. Simmons, Calcutta.

The Quekett Microscopical Club. — The
January number of the Journal of this well-known
club contains the following papers : — " On the Vibra-
tile Tags of Asplanchna," by C. Rousselet ; " On the
Stridulating Organs of Cystoaelia Floridic,'^ by R. T.
Lewis ; " On the Reproductive Organs of some of

the Floridse," by T. H. Buffham ; "On Lacinularia^
and a New Rotifer from Guildford," by G. Weitern ;
" On a New Diatom from the Estuary of the Thames,"
by W. H. Shrubsole ; "Note on Dhiops longipes"
by C. Rousselet ; " On the Human Spermatozoa,"
by E. M. Nelson, &c. The plates are numerous and
good.

ZOOLOGY.

The Mimicry of Mantis. — An insect which is-
not uncommon in India is a medium-sized mantis,,
between three and four inches in total length. It :s
one of those mantises which have a long slender
thorax, and which, owing to the second and third,
pairs of legs being very long, carry their thorax and
head very high. In this insect the thorax is about
half its entire length, and is of a bright grass-
green colour without any markings, and it obviously
mimics a grass stem. The abdomen is also some-
what slender, "the wing-covers are of a grass-green
colour, without markings, and it obviously mimics
a grass blade. But in both these cases the mimicry
is obvious, as also the reason for it, and it is not
what I wish to call attention to. The first joint of
the fore-legs is widened and flattened ; it is also
green, and the posterior surface is marked with a
large ocellus. When the insect is undisturbed it
remains generally in one place, but is not perfectly
motionless ; it sways perpetually and uniformly from
side to side. In this position it looks very harmless,
but if it is startled or alarmed its aspect instantly
changes ; it partly opens the wings, turns its head
and thorax so as to face the terrifying object, makes
a noise like a sudden, sharp puff of wind, very like
the noise made by a startled snake, and raises its
fore-legs so that the first joint lies along the thorax,
and the inside margin of the expansion being nearly
straight, it looks as if the fore-legs and thorax were
connected. In this position the ocelli are very con-
spicuous, and with the small, triangular head, and
the slender thorax, the effect is to produce a ludicrous
resemblance to a diminutive cobra. Now, what
puzzles me is this exact resemblance. The insect
could not possibly be taken for a cobra on account of
its small size and green colour ; while if the object is
only to appear formidable it could have been obtained
without imitating a cobra so exactly. It may be
suggested that there is no direct imitation, but that
the same causes which have led to the development
of the eye-spots in the cobra have also led to the
development of ocelli in this insect, viz., that the
apparent possession of a large head gives the animal
more formidable appearance ; but this explanation is
apparently negatived by the pecular noise made by
the insect, which certainly seems to indicate that a
snake is imitated. I'ossibly the object of the noise is
to suggest that it is some kind of snake, and then the

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

69

■ocelli may suggest that it is one of the cobra kind.
jVIay be, some of your readers may be able to suggest
a better explanation. Anyhow, the thing is curious,
and I think worthy of note.— y. R. Holt.

Hertfordshire Natural History Society. —
We have received the May, July, September, and
December parts of the Transactions of this well-known
society, containing the Anniversary Address by the
President Lord Clarendon, on " Field Sports and
their bearing on National Character," and the follow-
ing original papers — " Seeds and Fruits, their Structure
and Migrations," by A. E. Gibbs, "Meteorological
Observations," by John Hopkinson ; " Record of
Water Level in a Deep Chalk Well at the Grange, St.
Albans," by H, G. Ford ham ; "Local Scientific
Investigation in Connection with Committee of the
British Association," by John Hopkinson ;
" Geological Photography in Hertfordshire," by John
Hopkinson ; " Some Hertfordshire Well Sections," by
Wm. Whitaker ; " Report on the Rainfall in Hert-
fordshire in lSS9,"byJohn Hopkinson; " Climato-
logical Observations in Hertfordshire in 1S89 ; "
*' Half-a-century Rainfall in Hertfordshire ; " " Notes
on Birds observed in Hertfordshire in 1889," by
George Rooper, «S:c.

Influence of the Late Severe Winter on
Small Birds. — The feathered tribes, especially the
insectivorous species, suffered terribly during the in-
clement weather of December and January. Hedge
accentors, tits, thrushes and blackbirds tried to keep
life in their poor little famished bodies by coming
round houses and disputing for stray crumbs with the
sparrows. The want of food and water seemed to
•affect birds more even than the cold. In my out-
door aviary where the birds had abundance of food
and water to drink, but little special protection against
the cold, greenfinches seemed quite indifferent to the
weather, but I had a few casualties among the other
birds, especially the linnets. On the whole, however,
they bore the severe cold very well indeed ; a tame
moor-hen I have in an out-door aviary seemed
absolutely indifferent to it. — Albert H. Waters, B.A.,
Cambridge.

Lovers of Natural History are invited to join the
Practical Naturalist's Society. Beginners may join as
Associates, Prospectus for stamp from the Secretary,
IVilloughby House, Mill Road, Cambridge.

BOTANY.

Ornithopus ebracteatus.— Mr. Haydon, in his
note about the Cyprus Spurge, which was published
in your January number, mentioned that the Ornith-
■cpus ebracteatus was found at Folkestone by a visitor
in 1888. As I was fortunate enough to discover it
ihere in the same year, perhaps he would kindly let

me know to whom he refers ; amongst my own books
I could find no reference to it, except as growing in
the Scilly islands, I therefore sent it to the Secretary
of the Natural History Society at Folkestone, but for
this and other specimens I have sent him I have had
no acknowledgment. I presumed it was not considererl
of sufficient value to be mentioned. In future I will
record all my findslin your columns as Mr. Haydon
suggests. — G. Abbott, Tunbridge Wells.

Plants Found in the Neighbourhood ok
OxsHOTT, Surrey, September 27TH, 1890, —
The following is a short general description of the
district of Oxshott Heath, Surrey, and a list of plants
observed there on the afternoon of September 27th,
1890, when the writer formed one of the members of
a natural history excursion-party. The plants have
all been recorded for the county, and so, scientifically,
their present mention is of little value ; but to those
among whom this magazine circulates, who are little
accustomed to moorland scenery, they may give some
idea of flowers likely to occur in such districts.
Oxshott Heath is about seventeen miles from the
centre of London — I say centre because the
metropolis is only too rapidly pushing out one of its
arms in that direction, and the speculative builder is
busy at work not many miles off. For so near
London some of the plants are by no means of
frequent occurrence, and the writer would urge upon
collectors to gather their specimens with a sparintj
band. Nearly all this district is in the Bagshot sand
formation ; and close to Oxshott railway station there
is a curious sandy knoll or hill of considerable height ;
these sand-hills, many of them clad with Scotch fir,
are quite a characteristic of this district. The St.
George's Hills, near Weybridge, not many miles
from Oxshott, are another good example. Although
much of the Heath is elevated, covered with ling,
furze, and clumps of fir-trees, there are peat-bogs
abounding in sphagnum-moss, and in these most of the
rarer plants are to be found. The plants noted were
as follows : — Ulex nanus, Forst., very abundant on
the sandy open parts ; Scabiosa succisa, L., abundant ;
Sonchus arvetisis, L., abundant; Calluna vulgaris,
Salisb., in large masses, and still in fiill bloom ; Erica
Tetralix, L., fairly abundant in the moister parts ;
the flowers of some plants were very pale, almost
white, in fact. E. cinerea, L., very frequent ;
Drosera rotundifolia, L., in fair quantity, growing
amongst sphagnum-moss, D. intermedia is known
also to occur, but none was noted on this occasion,
and it is fortunate for its own sake that it is not easy
to find in this locality. Teucrium Scorodonia, L.,
very common ; Mentha Fulegium, this plant, which
is rare elsewhere, was found in considerable quantity
in the bog. Scutellaria minor, L., found very
sparingly ; Verbena officinalis, L., one patch found by
roadside. Nartheciuni ossifragum, Huds. (Lancashire
bog-asphodell), in large quantity in the bog, but only

7°

HARDWICKE'S SCI ENCE-GOSSJP.

in seed. These plants were growing in a sheltered
position ; but on Sept. 3, 1890, I found plants ot N.
ossifragum on Ashdown Forest, Sussex, in an equally
advanced condition, but these were growing in a bog
in an open wind-swept gulley. Can any reader
inform me whetlier an exposed situation causes such
plants to flower and mature earlier than those
growing more or less under the shade of trees ?
Lastrca Jilatata ; Loinaria spicant (immature), on
banks ; Litcobriiiin glaiicum, in clumps, abundantly
under the fir-trees. Sphagnum sqtiarosum, S. cyniibi-
folium, and S. nciitiim, in bogs. Marckanlia poly-
Diorpha, abundant on the banks of ditches. In the
case of identification of some of the plants my best
thanks are due for help kimlly given by some
members of the excursion-party. — Archibald Clarke.

GEOLOGY, &c.

Coal Sections. — What is the best and simplest
method to make sections of coal, fossils, rocks, other
than by the grinding process ? Such as those made
by Professor Williamson or Boyd Dawkins, of
^Manchester, and in the Museum (? The transparent).
I do not know the acid or bleaching agent. — V. A-
Latham, F.R.M.S., F.G.S.

Boulders in the Midlands. — One of the best
and cleanest finished bits of original work we have
seen for some time is Mr. F. W. Martin's paper on
"The Boulders of the Midland District " (a second
report), reprinted from the " Proceedings of the
Birmingham Philosophical .Society." It is illustrated
by a vigorously drawn map, showing the distribution
of Midland boulders and the parent rocks from
which they have travelled. Mr. Martin's paper is
the most valuable contribution to local geology we
have seen for some time.

The Geology of Barbadoes.— Very few nooks
and corners of the globe are more geologically in-
teresting than the West Indian Islands. Mr. J. B.
Harrison, and Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne have just
issued a pamphlet on the subject published by the
Barbadoes Legislature. The chapters relating to
the Physical Geology of the Island are extremely
interesting. The sections are instructive. Barbadoes
is a typical " Oceanic Island," and is therefore worth
double study. Messrs. Harrison and Jukes-Browne
have here turned out good and well concentrated
work.

The Coral Rocks of Barbadoes. — Messrs.
Jukes-Brown and Professor Harrison recently read an
interesting paper on this subject before the Geological
Society. They first discussed the coral reef growing
round Barbadoes, and described a submarine reef,
the origin of which was considered. It was pointed
out that there is no sign of any .sul)sidence having

taken place, but every sign of very recent elevation..
They then described the raised reefs of the island^
extending to a height of nearly n 00 feet above sea
level in a series of terraces. The thickness of the-
coral rock in these is seldom above 200 feet, and the
rock does not always consist of coal debris. At
the base of the reefs there is generally a certaim
thickness of detrital rock in which perfect reef-corals
never occur. The collections of fossils made by the
authors have been examined by Messrs. E. A. Smith'
and J. W. Gregory. Of the corals, five out of ten
species identified still live in the Caribbean Sea, and
one is closely allied to a known species, whilst the-
other four are only known from Professor Duncan's
descriptions of foSsil Antiguan corals. The authors
are of opinion that the whole of the terraces of
Barbadoes, the so-called "marl" of Antigua, and'
the fossiliferous rocks of Barbuda are of Pleistocene-
age. The authors proceeded to notice the formations
in other West Indian islands which appear to be
raised reefs comparable with those of Barbadoes, and
showed that these reefs occur through the whole
length of the Antillean Chain, and indicate a recent
elevation of at least 1300 feet, and in all probability
of nearly 2000 feet. It appears improbable that
each island was a region of separate uplift, and as av
plateau of recent marine limestone also occurs in<
Yucatan, this carries the region of elevation into
Central America, and it is reported that there are
raised reefs in Colombia. The authors concluded
that there has been contemporaneous elevation of the
whole Andean Chain from Cape Horn to Tehuante-
pec and of the Antillean Chain from Cuba to Bar-
badoes. Before this there must have been free
communication between the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, which is confirmed by the large number of
Pacific forms in the Caribbean Sea. Under such
geographical conditions the great equatorial current
would pass into the Pacific, and there would be no
Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic,

The Glacial Period.— We havereceived a copy
of Mr. Dugald Bell's paper, republished from the
Transactions of the Glasgow Geological Society, on
the " Phenomena of the Glacial Period," dealin"-
especially with "the great submergence." It is one
of the most exhaustive papers on the subject we have
come across, and is well illustrated by maps, etc.
This is Part ii. and we should be pleased if the
author would send us Part i.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Rabiut Dying of Old Age. — In December a
male rabbit, which has been in my possession from
the age of three months, died, to all appearance of
old age ; he would have been ten years old in March
next, the claws were considerably over an inch in
length. A female of the same litter was so vicious,
though always kindly treated, that it was necessary

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

71

to take a thick stick when feeding her. — /F. A.
'Gain.

Two Sides of the Medal. — Surely Mrs. Alice
Jiodington is labouring under some misapprehension
as to what Mr. Wallace and other naturalists mean
when they say that the effects of use and disuse are
not inherited. I judge this to be so because as
examples of the contrary she gives the cases of the
inheritance of deafness, supernumerary toes, insanity
and other characters which are born with people, not
^acquired by them either through use or disuse, and
because her breath is taken away on reading Weis-
mann's statement that "the inheritance of acquired
■characters has never been proved." Let us take the
case of two men, A. and B. A. is born with large
muscular limbs, while B. is not, but by dint of careful
training and exercise he contrives to make his limbs
as big as A.'s. Mr. Wallace, and those who think
->vith him, say that A.'s children would be more
likely to have muscular limbs than B.'s, since the big
muscles of the latter are the result of use, while A's
are natural. Again, suppose C. to be born without
thumbs, and D. to lose his by accident. Does Mrs.
.Bodington suppose that D.'s children would be as
■likely to be born thumbless as C.'s ?• Wallace and
Weismann think that D.'s children would be as likely
ito have thumbs as those of any one else. My friend
Mr. W. P. Ball, in a little book recently published
by Messrs. Macmillan, in " Nature Series," has
analysed very destructively the cases which have
been adduced in favour of the hypothesis of what he
■calls "use-inheritance," and I think that those who
■wish to look at both sides of the medal should read
this work carefully. — Charles Bird, Rochester.

Two Sides of the Medal. — I think many of
your readers would be glad if Mrs. Bodington would
explain what third set of renals exist in vertebrates,
besides the true kidneys and the Wolffian organs. —
F.R.

Beche-de-Mer. — Will some reader of Science

Gossip kindly inform me where ;i"Trepang," or

" Beche-de-mer " can be procured in London —

either by purchase or e-xchange ? — E. H. R., Pains-

.wick, Gloucestershire.

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES.

On the iith of August, 1887, a snow-white
■specimen of the yellow wagtail was observed on
Quaiaton Hills (not far from this village) by a friend
-oYmine. On the morning of the next day he saw it
again, and got within a few yards of it, and saw it
well before it flew away. Its flight and chirrup were
quite normal. An albino wagtail I consider to be a
rare and somewhat unusual occurrence amongst birds.
Several white starlings have been observed in this
neigbourhood at various times by different persons,
and one was seen on the i6th of July, 1890, and
again on the i8th with other starlings by my cousin,
Mr. P. H. Ward, who also saw it settle on the back
of a sheep, after it had flown from the place where he
first saw it. Several white house-sparrows (more or
less deficient in colour) have also been seen and shot
in this district.

In the winter of 1885 a sparrow was caught in a
trap with the crown of its head pure white, and one
was seen on the 6th of last November, 1889, and
again on the iSth, in company with a flock of its
companions, with its back and tail quite white. So
recently as September 24th, 1890, one with a white
%ving was observed amongst a large flock of sparrows,

which frequented a stubble-field for the littered grains
and loose ears of wheat when the rest had been
carted away to the barn or stack. Another albino
bird, of the finch family, was seen by my cousin on
June 6th 1890, who thought it was either a chaffinch
or a linnet, but he could not be certain of its species.
I have been told by a person of good authority that
he saw a white blackbird in his father's orchard a few
years ago. Another parishioner said that when he
was at harvest-work near Wendover, a few years ago,
he killed a white pheasant. — H. G. IVard, North
Alarston, Bucks.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the follo'A'ing number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken oi o\ix gratuitous
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To our Recent Exchangers. — We are willing and helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to .us
to appear unless as advertisements.

E. Pratt. — You may procure any of the following works
relating to the botany, &c., of Surrey, of W. Wesley & Son,
Essex Street, Strand: Brewer's "Flora of Surrey," with maps,
price TS. td. ; " Flora of Reigate," by G. Luxford ; Brewer's
"List of Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Fishes, Birds, &c.," price
2^^. dd.

A. Mavfield. — The average length of the slow worm
{Anguis fragilis) is from 9 to 10 inches. Your specimen,
17! inches long, is very unusual.

E. Parker. — Re " Lobster and whelk." It is not a lobster
at all, but the hermit crab {Pagiirus Bernhardus), which
always lives in empty whelk shells, its own body being per-
manently soft. It is a type of a distinct order of Crustacea.

B. C. Robinson. — You will doubtless obtain a good second-
hand copy of Kirby and Spence's " Introduction to Ento-
mology" of Messrs. W. Wesley & Son, Essex Street, Strand,
or Mr. W. P. Collins, 157 Great Portland Street, London, W.

C. Oldham. — To preserve frogs, &c., try a mixture of half-
and-half spirits and glycerine.

M. J. Teesdalh. — You can prepare your new magic lantern
slides by getting the usual sizes of ground glass, similar to
those used for cl ildre'^'s transparent drawing slates, and by
placing them over an', oook illustration or otherwise, sketching
on them with a pencil. The sketches can then be filled in
with transparent oil colours.

R. de G. B. — You are probably correct in surmising that the
cases are the cocoons of a coccus. It will be best to wait till
they come out. The best Handbook on British Birds is written
by Mr. Howard Saunders, and published by Messrs. Gurney
and Jackson in twenty shilling parts, illustrated.

Miss Chichester. — The Editor is much obliged for the
drawings and photographs of the holly bough, which is ex-
ceedingly interesting. iThe flattening is due to "fasciation,"
but it is uncommon in the holly.

EXCHANGES.

Wanted, choice unmounted material, polycistina, &c., in
exchange for choice microscopic shdes of every description. —
R. Suter, 5 Highweek Road, Tottenham, London.

Wanted, fossils from various localities. Good duplicates
offered in exchange.— Thos. W. Reader, 171 Hemingford Road,
London, N.

Science-Gossip from vol. i. (1865) to vol. xvi. (i83o), un-
bound, but wrapped and tied up in vols., with the exception of

72

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

nineteen numbers, viz., June to December, 1876, and the
whole of 1877. What oflcrs for the lot?— T. Black, 190 Bell-
hagg Road, Sheffield.

W.\NTED, dried leaves of eleagnus, deutzia, onosmo, &c.,
also lepidoptera, Ulysses, niorpho, rypheiis, &c. Good
exchange in micro-slides. — George Read, 87 Lordship Road,
London, N.

Twenty-two copper coins, and Science-Gossip from May
to December, 1890, to exchange. What offers in fossils? —
Walter C. Shield, 36 Garlurk Street, Crossbill, Glasgow.

Student's microscope by Maw, Son, & Thompson ; rack
and fine adjustments, double nose-piece, two eye-pieces, + and
A objectives. Want high-power objective, or lirst-class bino-
cular.— Taylor, 26 Marchmont Street, London, W.C.

Wanted, eighth and following parts of Braithwaite's " Moss
Flora," or " Sphagnacese." Dried plants and mosses, or other
books in exchange, including Greene's "Coelenterata " and
"Protozoa;" Eyton's "Rarer British Birds" (woodcuts);
Carpenter's " Microscope," and others. List sent. — J. A.
Wheldon, 32 Langham Street, Ashton-under-Lyne.

Offered, "Our Earth and Its Story," 3 vols., and "Dic-
tionary of English History," both in parts, but in excellent
condition. Wanted a detective camera. — R. H. Lawton,
6 Mosley Street, Manchester.

Wanted, the " Library," vols. i. and ii. (unbound pre-
ferred), also "Great Thoughts," vols, i., ii. and iii., first edition.
Both must be clean, complete, and in good condition. — Chas.
Leigh, Library, Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Cromwell Road,
London, S.W.

Numerous duplicates in carboniferous fossils, especially
ferns and corals, in exchange for trilobites. — P. Wright, Brunt-
wood, Galston, Ayrshire, N.B.
Duplicates. — Machaon, cardamines, agon, Adippe lo,
, polychloros, P. chrysilis, Z. Jilijiendulte, E. lancstris, L .
Rotatoria, CttcuUia vtrbasci, in exchange for others. — E.
Wilson, 115 St. Martins at Oak, Norwich.

British reptiles and batrachians wanted, perfect adult
living or spirit specimens, in exchange for correctly named
foreign species or other objects. — G. E. ]\L, s Warwick Place
West, Belgravia, London.

Good specimens of dentaria bulbifera, and Gentiana pneu-
jHOnantke, in exchange for fossils from the Wealden London
clay, and Bournemouth beds.— Curator, The Vicarage, South-
borough.

Offered, good cast of ichthyosaurus from lias of Lyme
Regis, 22 X 12. Wanted, any good fossils from any formation.
— M., 56 Clarendon Villas, West Brighton.

Wanted, brilliant foreign coleoptera ; need not be set, but
must be correctly named. Good exchange given in first-class
botanical sections, either mounted or unmounted, or objects of
general interest. State quantity ot specimens with sample. —
R. G. Mason, 69 Clapham Park Road, Clapham, S.W.

M.\NY species of marine and land shells from S. Australia,
Madeira, Porto Santo, and Gibraltar, for exchange. Any offer
of shells — in good condition, and not already in collection —
accepted. Send list of duplicates to — F. W., Lordship House,
Tottenham.

Wanted, ether freezing microtome, Williams's preferred.
Will give powerful Quackenbush air-gun, with slugs and darts,
almost new, cost 48^-. — H. Ebbage, Framlingham, Suffolk.

Wanted, good objective for microscope, I or J7 inch, with
Societies' screw; also " Micrographic Dictionary." Otfered,
three volumes of "Knowledge," and micro-slides. — P. Briggs,
Clayton, near Bradford, Yorks.

Duplicates. — Harpa ventricosa, Ovulntn ovum, Cypraa
arabica. Bulla a-ntptilla, Olivancillaria gibbosa. Wanted,
other foreign shells. — J. E. Cooler, 93 Southwood Lane,
Highgate, N. _

Wanted, a copy of the "London Catalogue of British
Mosses and Hepatics," published in 1881. — Ernest S. Salmon,
Clevelands, Reigate.

I SHALL be very glad if persons interested in conchology,
residing in Exeter and neighbourhood, and willing to co-
operate in establishing a local society, will communicate with
me. Address— L. J. S., Monmouth House, Monmouth Street,
Topsham, S. Devon.

Wanted, any good poultry in exchange .'"or minerals and
geological specimens. — William Hetherington, Nenthead,
Alston Moore, Cumberland.

Collins' \, new, in fine condition, cost 3/. -^s. What oflfers
in exchange?— E. Wagstaft, 3 Waterworks Road, Edgbaston,
Birmingham.

Wanted, vols. 4-9 of the "Young Naturalist," bound or
unbound ; must be in good condition. State desiderata to —
F. W. Paple, 62 Waterloo Street, Bolton.

Saville Kent's " Infusoria," no further use for it, bound in
half-green morocco cloth, excellent condition. What offers ?
— E. Wagstaff, Waterworks Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

For slide of starch grains from bulb of spider orchis, for the
polariscope, send other slide. — John Boggust, Alton, Hants.

Wanted, fossils from all formations, in exchange for coal-
measure fossils, Spirorbis, Anthracoda robusta, A. acuta, A.
elongata, scales and teeth of megalichthys, rhizodus, &c.
Address— John Laycock, 20 Botany Lane, Ashton-under-
Lyne, Lancashire. .

Good foreign shells wanted ; need not be named. Offered,
nat. hist, and other literature, or suitable exchange. Foreign,
correspondence solicited. — W. Jones, jun., 27 Mayton Street,
Holloway, London, N.

Wanted, vars. of llclix aspersa, H. nemoralis, H. arbtis-
toruni. If. hortensis, H. cantiana, H. pisana, H, virgata,.
//. caperata, //. ericetornm, H . rotundata, Buliinus acutus^
&c., H. revelata, type ; Clausilia Rolphii and bifilicata,.
Achatina acicula. Will give darts of helices in return. —
A. Hartley, 8 Cavendish Road, Idle, near Bradford, Yorkshire.

Offered, hardy fern roots, primrose roots, &c. Wanted \n
exchange, store boxes to hold insects, eggs, shells, fossils,
coins, &c. — W. Z. Balmbra, The Cottages, Warkworth Station,
via Lesbiiry, Northumberland.

AcHARlus's " Lichenographia Universalis," a fine, well-
bound copy, offered in exchange for double nose-piece, bent,.
Society screv, or for good copy of Leighton's " Angiocarpous
Lichens." — Wm. Smith, 28 Addison Place, Arbroath, N.B.

Wanted, Sach's " Text-Book of Botany," and parts of
Braithwaite's " Moss Flora," also slides from mosses, tern^,
and hepaticae. Will give other mounts in exchange. — T. B.,
124 Castle Street, Hinckley.

Wanted, to exchange " Knowledge," vols. i. to v.. Car-
penter's "Mental Physiology" "Nature," various volumes,
and other books (list sent), for micro-slides, microscope appa-
ratus, &c., or books on botany and microscopy. — G. Freeman,
B.Sc, sr Danby Street, Denmark Park, S.E.

Scotch lichens offered in exchange for southern species,
especially from the English limestone districts. — Wm. Smith,.
28 Addison Place, Arbroath, N.B.

Offered, Helix pisana, rufescens, ericetorum ; Planorbis
coinplanatus and corneus, Bulimus ncutits, LitnticEa stagnalis,
Clausilia rugosa. "WanlcA, Pisidiuiit/o/ttiiiale, Vertigo anii-
vertigo, Zonites cellarius and iiitiduhts, Testacella haliotidea.
Pupa secale, Dreisse/ia polymorpha. — H. W. D., South-
borough Vicarage, Tunbridge Wells.

Will give Flower's "Osteology of the Mammalia," for
living pupa of lepidoptera, sphingidse preferred. — Ernest Piatt,
West Street, Chipping Norton, Oxon.

Offered, H. alborabris, H. throides, H. fallax and Z.
excavatus (North America), Pecten tigriiius. Lacuna divari-
cata, L. i>allidula, T. testudinalis, Myra truncata, Unio-
margarittfer, CI. laminata, PL nitidits, and many others.
Wanted, land, freshwater and marine shells not in collection..
—P. R. Shaw, 48 Bidston Road, Birkenhead. _

Wanted, a good microscope, with accessoiies, in exchange
for a safety bicycle fitted with trangent spokes, balls to al!
parts, patent tyres, and all latest improvements. — I. Russon,.
15 Str. Collegio, St. Julian's, Malta.

Offered, foraminiferous material, mounted diatoms, or
mounted pathological objects, in exchange for geological lite-
rature.— I. H. Cooke, Highland House, St. Julian's, Malta.

BOOKS. ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.
"An Explanation of the Phonopore," by C. Langdon-Davie=;
(London: Kegan Paul). — "The Lepidoptera of Suffolk," by
E. N. Bloomfield (London: W. Wesley).— " British Cage
Birds," Part 10, and " The Canary Book," Part 10. by Robt.
L. Wallace (London: L. Upcott Gill).— "Transactions Hert-
fordshire Nat. Hist. Society," Part 9, vol. v., and Parts i, 2
and 3 of vol. vi. — "Phenomena of the Glacial Period," by
Dugald Bell.— "The Honey Bee: Its Natural History, Ana-
tomy, and Physiology," by T. W. Cowan (London : Houlston
& Sons). — "Electricity; a Sketch for General Readers," by
E. M. Caillard (London: John Murray).— " Are the Effects nf
Use and Disuse Inherited?" by W. Piatt Ball (London:
Macmillan).— "The Book of Aquaria," by Messrs. Bateman
and Bennett (London: L. Upcott Gill).— " Geology of the
Country around Liverpool," by Geo. H. Mortom (London :
G. Phillip & Son). — "The Naturalist of Cumbrae," by the
Rev. Thos. R. R. Stebbing (London: Kegan Paul).— "A
Class-Book on Light," by R. E. Steel (London : Methuen &
Co.).— Wesley's " Natural History and Book Circular.'^'—
"American Microscopical Journal."- "The Microscope."—
"American Naturalist."— " Canadian Entomologist."— " The
Naturalist."— "The Botanical Gazette."— "The Gentleman's
Magazine."— "The Midland Naturalist."— " The Garner."—
"Quekett Journal," January.— " Feuille des Jeunes Natu-
ralistes."— " Quarterly Journal," Royal Microscopical Society,.
&c., &c.

Communications received up to the 12TH ult. from:-
M. J. T.— J. A. W.-E. H.— W. C. S.— C. O.— G. R.—

D. W. B.— R. S.-T. W. R.-T. B.-A. H.-J. W. B.— T.—

E. H. R.— S. B.— E. A. M.— F. H. W.-L. C. H.— W. M. W.
—A. H. W.— W. P.— J. E. L.— R. H. L.— J. A.— E. H. W.
_W. J.— F. W. P.— W. L. B.— E. P.— J. B.— J. L.— E. W.—
W. H.— F. R.— B. C. R.— L. J. S— J. E. C— R. G. M.—
E. S. S.— H. E.-P. B.-F. W.-F. C. M.— F. W. F.— C. B.
—Miss C— E. P.— W. J. S.— E. B.— T. B.— W. S.-E. W.—
P. R. S.-G. F.-H. W. D.— G. A.— H. D.— W. G. K.— S. J..
— T. G. B.— I. H. C— J. S. N.— R. de G. B.— &c., &c.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

73

THE COLOUR AND BANDING IN LAND AND FRESH-
WATER SHELLS: A REPLY TO MR. FRYER.

By J. W. WILLIAMS.

IXCE forwarding for
publication my
reply to Mr. Pace's
strictures on my
article which was
printed in the
August number,
?vlr. Fryer has, on
pp. 241 and 242
ante, published a
very interesting
and courteous cri-
ticism to which I
may be allowed to
reply. His open-
ing remarks to a
large extent I ap-
preciate, but as
shown by my con-
cluding remarks of
the article in ques-
tion I gave the theory as a tentative one only,
and certainly it will be conceded that no matter
what our present knowledge may be, yet the pro-
mulgation of a theory on such grounds, and as a
working one merely, is perfectly legitimate. There
would be no harm done even if with further re-
search it led to no good and stable result ; for it
certainly would not allow us to vegetate, AVith the
qualification to Von Baer's law (italicised by Mr.
Fryer), I do not agree, simply because it is a well-
known fact and law that no matter whether retro-
gression has occurred or not in our present day forms,
evolution has progressed primarily along a line
leading from the simple to the complex. My critic
says that if this is what I intend to ' ' convey, it
certainly does not accord with the views of evolution
as laid down by Darwin, Wallace, and Spencer ; "
but this statement is plainly negatived by the fact
that Mr. Wallace [in lift. September 7, 1 890), agrees
No. 316. — April 1891.

with my conclusions. Throughout Mr. Fryer does
not seem to attack the main points in my theory, and
our greatest difference seems to me to be this : — that
he does not recognise the fundamental law of Hxckel,
while I do.

This appears to me a pity, because while recog-
nising to some degree Yon Baer's law, he appears
to totally set at naught the very law, on the principle
of which the grandest contributions of embryologj'
and palaeontology have been furnished to the hypo-
thesis of evolution, viz., that " Ontogeny is a brief
epitome of phylogeny." And even more does it
appear a pity since the majority of our biological
teachers in this countiy give it as forming the ground-
work, with that of Von Baer, on which the whole
superstructure of the evolution hypothesis has been
raised. In my reply to his several headings, I shall
then count on the validity of these two laws, and I
imagine legitimately in the present day teaching of
science.

(i.) This sentence seems to me somewhat
ambiguous, for to me Mr. Fryer appears to directly
contradict himself in one breath. He uses the words
" chitinous plug," and afterwards speaks of it as
composed of " conchiolin, not chitin." I have
replied to this criticism in my former note on Mr.
Pace's strictures, and made reference to Balfour. I
cannot see how it invalidates my theory if I believe
in Hceckel's law.

(2 and 5.) The nuclei of my specimens of H.
virgata are brownish horn-coloured, and not black.
Possibly, there is a fallacy here ; if a little of the
digestive gland be left behind in cleaning, the nuclei
may appear black. But even were it so, it would
not negative the general conclusion to which I arrived,
simply because it may but prove an after-extension or
development of colour. That there is a law of
extension of colour appears to me proved by the
following sentence quoted from Eimer : — " WUrtem-
berger finds that in Ammonites all structural changes

74

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IF.

show themselves first on the last (the outer) whorl
of the shell — as in living animals, e.g. in my lizards
at the tail — and that then such a change in the
following generations is pushed farther and farther
towards the beginning of the spiral — as e.g. in my
lizards towards the head — until it prevails in the
greater number of the whorls" ("Organic Evolu-
tion," p. 31). This may explain the coloured nuclei
of If. maritima and H. syriaca, but I cannot say
anything of these as I have not any specimens of
these species by me. And if there be sucli a law of
after-colour extension, as suggested by Eimer, the
reader will see that it has other bearings on my theory
than the one here indicated.

(3.) Mr. Fryer, while recognising the fact that the
Limnaeas are horn-coloured, mentions the banded
and spotted Chilinire, and the members of the families
Paludinidas, Neritidce, Cerithiadre, &c. With these
exceptions other conditions I imagine come into play,
but it is a patent fact that in all of them the young
secondary shell is horn-coloured and unhanded.
What these other conditions are is not known, but
it is a pity that those exceptions which Mr. Fryer
adduces are in the main foreign and cannot be
observed by us in their natural and living state under
their own peculiar environment or surrounding.
Considering the fact italicised by me and remem-
bering Hffickel's law, I cannot see how this criticism
can invalidate my theory.

(4.) The fact that white " may be due to the
molecular structure of the surface " rather, it appears
to me, upholds and substantiates my theory. Mr.
Fryer would not then allow a unicoloured white
specimen any pigment secreting cells at all, that is on
the grounds of theoretical reasoning ; more of this
deduction shortly. But if the primitive shell was
horn-coloured, as he appears to admit, but that an
advance to white was not next made, how does he
explain the fact that the primary shells in the shell-
gland are sometimes white, though more generally
horn-coloured, and that the persistent primary shell
in Arion, Amalia and Limax is always white ?
Remember in this connection the law of Hceckel,
and do not forget it in re-reading the query which
Mr. Fryer gives directly afterwards. But what does
Mr. Fryer mean by atrophy of the pigment glands in
this relation ? Does he really mean that nature
finds it easier to differentiate cells than to let them
remain hi statu quo ? It appears to me, that con-
sidering the ontogeny of the shell was from horn-
colour to white, pigment-secreting cells were only
differentiated when pigment was needed, that during
the horn and the white periods pigment cells were
not in existence, and had never been developed.

(6.) I cannot see how the criticism affects my
theory. If its " light appearance seems to be due to
the absence of band-colour," etc., as most assuredly
it does, or it would not be var. cxalbiday then why
may it not be a " reversion " ?

(7.) Answered in my reply to Mr. Pace.

In his concluding remarks, ISlx. Fryer leans
towards the suggestion of Mr. Cockerell that the
colour of our Hyalinse is probably due to the
suffusion of darker band colours. But if so, banded
reversions would occur not only in one but in all the
species, and this is known not to be the case. The
question of tf. cantiana, H. caiiicsiana, &c., as
equally and more legitimately (I think) supports the
opposite conclusion to that at which Mr. Fryer
seems to arrive. I look upon banded specimens as
more advanced in colour development than those
which are unhanded. Banding means a specialisation
of pigment-secreting cells in the mantle edge. And
were Mr. Fryer's remark true, the bands in this case
of Hyalina should be lighter than the ground-colour ;
but in the varieties he adduces, they are darker !

(i.) Answered by ontological facts, von Baer's
law, and the law of Hseckel.

(ii.) This is more an extension of my theory than
a contradiction. It shows that, in some cases, un-
colourous specimens may be produced by an inter-
mingling of bands, though ontology negatives this
for horn-coloured and white specimens. Evidently
castanea is an advance on the clearly banded forms of
II. ucmoralis.

(iii.) I cannot see how these observations, inter-
esting in their way, affect my general theory. Again
I stand behind the fortress of Von Baer and Ha;ckel,
and to those who understand the full bent of the laws
which were formulated by them it will appear that I
shall not use much powder and shot.

(iv.) This also becomes intelligible in the light of
the development of the shell. And I think more
legitimately. What, again, I ask about the horn-
coloured and whitish primary shells of the embryo,
and the persistent ones in Arion, Amalia, and
Limax ?

(v.) Replied to in my answer to Mr. Pace. But
Helix aadeata and H. pygmca are horn-coloured
also ! But besides what I have before said, what
Mr. Fryer adduces as regards shrews and ants rests
on probability and not actual observation. See the
references which he gives.

" BIRDS OF THE WEST."

A FEW notes on birds observed by me, in the
west of Co. Mayo, during the months of August
and September, may be of interest to some of your
readers. I saw no particularly uncommon ones : in
fact, my observations merely comprise the results of
a few desultory walks from time to time, most of
my attention being occupied with fishing.

At the beginning of August, on the sandy sea
coast, golden plovers were in some numbers and
very tame : grey plovers did not seem to have
arrived yet ; dunlins also were. exceedingly plentiful ;
they breed in the neighbourhood. Curlews and

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

75

whimbrels were to be seen both by the sea, and
especially inland, flying over the l^ogs, and arresting
one's attention by their mournful cries : associated
with them on the coast, were oyster-catchers, whose
black and white plumage rendered them very
conspicuous. All three birds are exceedingly wary
and difficult to approach : in the open it is almost
impossible to get within shot of them ; the only
chance of success is to hide behind banks and stalk
them, often on hands and knees.

Whimbrels are called here " May-birds," as in
many other parts of the kingdom, from the fact of
them arriving in May : most of the natives consider
them young curlews.

Knots and sanderlings were in large flocks : there
were a good many redshanks, but I saw no godwits.
At high water, large flocks of ringed plovers were
to be found on the sand, just above high-water mark :
most of them appeared to be asleep in the sun ; at
any rate, they allowed me to approach within half-a-
dozen yards before taking to flight ; a few, however,
in each flock were more restless, running about
among their comrades in an aimless fashion.

On the marshes near the isea, one could always
find herons {hibernice cranes), on the look-out for
crabs, I suppose ; for crabs were the only animals I
could find there. Later on, in the same place, I saw
a good many snipe, and some small ducks. I could
not get near enough to the latter to determine their
species, but I think they were golden-eyes. I am told
that the west coast of Mayo is a great resort of ducks
and geese in winter : the people say that the geese
are principally barnacles, but I think this is a mistake,
as the name is very generally misapplied in Ireland
to brent geese.

Hooded crows and rooks were very common :
magpies, although very numerous and tame in most
parts of Ireland, were conspicuous by their absence
here : probably the want of trees in the district
accounts for this.

I was surprised to see so few hawks : one or two
kestrels, a single peregrine, and another that I
took to be a sparrow-hawk — it was some distance off"
— were all I noticed. Report says, however, that
there are a pair or two of golden eagles on the cliffs
of Achill Island : I regret that I could not find time
to go to look for them.

Inland, I saw a few common buntings ; yellow
hammers, linnets and meadow-pipits swarmed, but of
goldfinches, tolerably plentiful in other seemingly
similar parts of Ireland, I saw none.

On my pointing out a kingfisher to my gillie, he
told me that he had never seen the bird before.

Water ousels were common on the mountain
streams, and as I fished, flitted from rock to rock,
and on settling bowed gravely to me in their comical
way.

Wheatears were fairly numerous in September,
there were very few swifts and swallows ; terns were

plentiful about some of the inland lakes, amongst
them being a great many immature birds.

I saw a skylark with almost pure white body.

A good many rare birds have been recorded from
time to time in Co. Mayo, but, of course, to get any,
one must be constantly on the look-out, and collect
systematically.

A barred warbler is recorded in a recent number of
"The Zoologist" to have been procured near
Belmullet in 1884, and to be now in the possession
of Dr. Birkett of that town.

The natives have some curious beliefs : on asking
one of the men who work the salmon nets whether
he was not very liable to rheumatism from constant
wading in the water, he informed me that at the
beginning of the season, he ate salmon every day for
a fortnight, and that in consequence, the water ran
off his skin as from a duck's back. Another legend
was, that all the rats which entered the precincts of a
ruined abbey, used as a burial-ground, immediately
dropped down dead. I took the trouble to visit the
place, but saw no rats, dead or alive. On one of
the graves were dozens of long "church-warden"
pipes, it being the custom at a funeral for each of
the mourners to deposit one on the tomb : do any of
your readers know of a similar custom in any other
part of the country, or the origin of the practice ?

H. J. W.

THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE OF
SCOTLAND.

By Chas. Wardingley.

\Contimied from p. 64.]

TURNING now for a short time to the considera-
tion of the carboniferous limestone as it occurs
in the Dumfries district, it may be remarked at the
outset that good exposures such as may be obtained
in quarries and railway cuttings are rather limited in
number. Of these, the best and most accessible are
shown in the accompanying sketch-map.

The village of Closeburn is situated about twelve
milesnorthof Dumfries, and the quarries are a mile to
the south-east of the railway station. These have been
worked almost continuously since 1770 and the vast
amount of rock laid bare affords an excellent
opportunity for its study. Here the limestone has
blue-grey Silurian strata for its base or foundation,
and the total depth or thickness, excluding the top
rubble, is a little over 60 feet and is divided as under.

Permian shales and sandstone
Red magnesian limestone .
Red sandstone and shales .
Massive red limestones .

Total

Feet.

8

12

20

20

60

Over the red magnesian limestone are thin

£ 2

75

HARDWICKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

deposits or layers of shale of decidedly Permian age
and yielding a few characteristic remains generally
very much distorted. The upper seam of limestone
is a magnesian rock, yielding on analysis about 40 per
cent, of carbonate of magnesia and 55 per cent, of
lime. The lower limestone on the contrary is of
carboniferous origin and consists of thick blocks con-
taining at least 90 per cent, of carbonate of lime,
separated by thin layers of red shale. The general
dip of the strata -is to the N.E. at an angle of 10°.
The interest attached to this exposure arises in a great
measure from the mineralogkal nature of the rocks
which vary so much in colour and general appearance
from those previously described. Indeed, but for the
organic remains entombed we might almost imagine
that by some means or other we had wandered into
and were examining a Permian exposure in Durham,
though the subordinate mammillary or botryoidal
concretions so commonly and typically exhibited

Fig. S2. — Map of Dumfries District, showing Limestone
exposures.

there are entirely absent in the rocks under our
notice. The fossils, however, soon show the true
nature of the deposit and all doubt is quickly dissi-
pated by the presence of Productus giganteus and P.
semiretictilatus. These characteristic fossils are very
common and fairly perfect, but other species,
Zaphrentis, Euomphalus. Bellerophon, and Spirijcra
are rare, badly preserved, and their identification is
often a matter of considerable difficulty.

Better exposures are found further north at New
Cumnock, near IMuirkirk, in which locality the car-
boniferous limestone is very extensively quarried.
The total depth of rock obtained here is 70 feet, while
the colour is again of the red tint imparted to it by
its proximity to magnesian strata. The fossil list is
a fairly long one and the diligent student should have
no difficulty in obtaining from the various quarries of
the immediate neighbourhood satisfactory specimens
of Orthis resupinata, Productus scmireticulatus,
Rhynchonella pugnus, Spirifera bisulcata, S. glabra,
BeUe7-opJiofi urii, Poteriocriniis crassus (parts),
Lithostrotio7i irregulare, Cyatliophylluin turhinatum,
Athyris roysii, A. ambigua.

An excellent exposure occurs at Kellhead, a little to
the north-east of Annan where there is an outcrop
about 50 feet thick on the top of a hill or ridge over-
looking the Solway Firth. This place is certainly
worthy of a visit, not for the sake of its geological
interest alone, but also for the commanding view of
the surrounding district which can be obtained from
it. Nor is it possible to find a better or more typical
example of the true " Mountain Limestone " in respect
of its physical aspect, and a day spent in and about
this quarry and hill will do more to impress upon
the mind the distinctive features of the formation than
weeks of reading or class-room work. The red colour
still prevails, but the rock in many "parts is very friable,
owing to the fact that it is chiefly made up of Encri-
nites, held together by a binding of clayey-looking
lime. Want of space prevents us from describing at
length the various remains found at Kellhead, and
for the present we must only name those which occur
most abundantly and perfect in this very interesting

Fig. 54. — Rhynchonella
pleurodon.

F'g- 53- — Euomfhahts
pcntangulatus.

quarry. Productus giganteus are again numerous, and
owing to the soft nature of the rock are not difficult
to extract. Euomphalus pentangulatiis appear very
perfect and in diameters varying from i| inches to 3
inches, while Bellerophon urii, and Nautilus dorsalis
are also frequently found indeed ; the writer remem-
bers seeing, nine years ago, a garden walk adjoining
one of the workmen's houses almost paved with
them. The siphuncled and chambered Cephalopod,
orthoceras is present in two or three species ranging
from ih inches to almost 5 feet in length.

Compared with the Carboniferous Umestone of
England, we cannot help being struck with the many
points of contrast rather than of agreement which
present themselves to our notice. In the Carbonifer-
ous limestone of Scotland the beds and quarries are
by comparison poor in respect of depth or thickness,
and this is the chief reason why so many of them haye
been and are being abandoned. Wherever the beds
dip at an inconvenient angle, it is unremunerative to
follow them into the earth. And with regard to
organisms too, there is a remarkable paucity of species,
while even such as are to be found are generally far
behind their southern contemporaries in regard to
symmetry of form and state of preservation.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

77

CONCERNING MARIGOLDS.

IT is curious to notice the tendency of late years
towards the planting of yellow or orange flowers
in English gardens. A railway journey round any
London suburb will illustrate this : the little back
gardens in the dingier streets are often ablaze with
sunflowers, and cottage gardens in purer air follow
suit. The marigold, under one or other of its varie-
ties, seems to be an especial favourite, and that not
in our own country alone. Cross to France and you
will find the common orange one figuring as a pot-
herb, and its petals introduced under the name of
"soucis" into your soup. In the Channel Isles the
same use is made of it, and it is so nearly wild as to
be seen growing in waste places or by roadsides,
while children make wreaths of the flowers to adorn
the " cheap tripper " as he rides in the "cars " round
the island. It's a pity that such a flower should be
so vulgarised.

But truth to tell, it has a certain tendency towards
gaudiness, a sort of rollicking behaviour, arising from
its rapid growth and sprawling habit (I speak of the
common, juicy kinds), which causes one to banish it
from one's choicest flower-beds, and to relegate it to
the shrubbery or to the kitchen-garden. It has
some tendency to become a weed, and is treated as
such. But for getting rapidly a blaze of colour with
plenty of luscious green to back it up, for covering
square yards of unsightly soil or rubbish-heap, com-
mend me to our friend marigold. It is sensitive to
light, like m.any of its comrades in the great compo-
site family, and ere the dew falls shuts its yellow
eyes, as if it were a magnified, glorified daisy.

One variety which is now before me, seems to
illustrate Mr. Grant Allen's theory of the develop-
ment of colour, for its ray-florets — the outer circle —
besides doubling or semi-sterilising themselves, have
attained a broad stripe of yellowish white up each
strap-shaped corolla, the original orange being rele-
gated to a tiny margin up each side, producing in the
whole flower-head the prettiest effect. An even
more refined member of the genus is the little
French marigold with its stiff, slender branching
stem and delicate, strongly-scented, pinnate leaves.
This kind seems to be aiming at a further stage in
colouring, for it is striped with dark brown, which, I
take it, is only red overlaid with orange. Some-
times the disc-florets of the common kinds take on
this brown velvety tint, as if they were aping their
big kinsfolk, the sunflowers.

Side by side with these tiny flowers gardeners
have produced those huge, unwieldy, double mari-
golds, which send up a juicy stem — admirable pasture
for slugs and snails — crowned with a solid mass of
glaring orange or sickly yellow flowers ; no shape,
no beauty, that I can see, though I have known the
flower-heads used effectively in harvest decorations.
Still, they always remind me of the rosettes seen

sometimes on horses' heads, or of the favours worn
at elections.

The scent of the marigold is not at all unpleasant ;
it resides chiefly in the leaves and stalksi; but the
stickiness (doubtless a protection against undesirable
insect visitors) of the common kinds makes the
gathering of a posy a disagreeable operation. The
juice has its virtues, for have we not in our pharma-
copoeia "Calendula," of healing virtue to wounds of
the skin ? Lastly, the name is a sweet reminder of
the Blessed Woman to whom so many of our English
flowers are dedicated, and in whose honour this
sojourner bears its English name.

M. E. Pope.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

yjIDS IN PRACTICAL GEOLOGY, by
_^l Grenville A. J. Cole (London : Charles
Griffin & Co.). This is a most valuable and very
welcome book to geological students. The subject is
treated on lines wholly different from those in any
other manual, and the book is, therefore, very
original. Indeed, it should really be considered
rather in the light of a companion vol. to the higher
class of geological text-books. A large space is
devoted to the best and readiest methods of
examining minerals, both with the wet and dry
processes ; how to examine rocks and rock-structures
physically and chemically ; whilst the concluding
part is devoted to the examination and determi-
nation of fossils. There are twenty-eight chapters
altogether, and one hundred and thirty-six illustra-
tions, mostly of fossils. We cordially commend
Professor Cole's book to all zealous students of
geology.

The Geology of the Country around Liverpool,
including the North of Flintshire, by G. H. Morton
(London : Geo. Philip & Son). Twenty-eight years
ago Mr. Morton wrote a small book on this subject,
which was much welcomed by field-geologists,
inasmuch as it was the result of personal observation
and exploration. Moreover, the author was well
known as an accurate, able, and painstaking
geologist. Since that period other equally able
geologists have explored the same area, and Mr.
Morton has himself, of course, added considerably to
the subject. The result is the publication of the
present well-printed and neatly got up volume ; it is
modestly entitled a Second Edition, but it is in
reality a larger and altogether differently got up
book, illustrated by twenty plates and fifteen wood-
cuts of sections, &c. We congratulate Mr. Morton
on the excellent work he has turned out.

The magnificently got up vols, of the United
States Geological Survey are always welcome to
English geologists, to whom they are presented with
a generosity which is in striking contrast to the

78

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

niggardliness with which the equally valuable
memoirs of our own Geological Survey are sent out
(or rather not sent out) for press notices. These
American volumes are aided by the best of illustra-
tions and maps. The paper is good and hotpressed ;
the type large, clear, and bold ; so that it is a
pleasure to turn over the pages.

T/ie Mtitk Annual Report of the U.S. Geol. Survey
for 1887-88 is a large volume of over 700 pp., and
contains lengthy papers, abundantly illustrated, on
" The,Earthquake at Charleston," by Carl McKinley ;
" The Geology of Cape Ann, Massachusetts," by
N. S. Shaler ; and on the " Formation of Travertine
and Siliceous Sinter by the Vegetation of Hot
Springs," by Walter H. Weed. We have also
received a splendidly got up monograph of over 400
pp., crowded with maps and woodcuts, on " Lake
Bonneville," by Jerome K. Gilbert. The annual
vol., dealing with the " Mineral Products of the
United States," is, for the year 188S, by David T.
Day. It deals with the working of numerous natural
productions, including, besides all the metals, coal,
petroleum, natural gas, asphalte, ozokerite, ferti-
lisers, salt, mineral paint, and almost every kind of
material put to use, which the rocks of the earth's
crust naturally contain. These vols, are highly use-
ful. In addition to the vols, we have received
"Bulletins," Nos. 58-66, each devoted to a special
geological or paleontological subject.

An Explanation of the Phonopore, by G. Langdon-
Davis (London : Kegan, Paul& Co.). This work is
printed in double columns, French and English, and
deals in a very clear manner with the details and
structure of the phonopore. There are numerous
illustrations.

Electricity ; the Science of the Nineteenth ■ Century,
by E. M. Caillard (London : John Murray). We
have previously noticed favourably a book by Miss
Caillard on "The Invisible Power of Nature." In
the present work she gives a clear, readable, and
easily-understood outline of modern electricity,
chiefly for the benefit of general readers. With such
a book as this at their service, no intelligent person
need be ignorant of the most important and pregnant
of the physical sciences. It comprises four parts,
each having a series of chapters, devoted respectively
to " Static Electricity " (or Electricity at Rest),
*' Magnetism," " Current Electricity," and the
"Practical [Appliances of Electricity." There are
numerous illustrations.

A Class Book on Light, by R. E. Steel (London :
Methuen & Co.), with 123 illustrations. This is not
only one of the best little treatises we have lately
seen on "Light," but on the elementary principles
of optics and optical instruments as well. The
contents contain eleven chapters as follows : — " The
Nature, Source, Intensity, and Velocity of Light,"
" Reflexion from Plane Surfaces," " Ditto from
Curved Surfaces," " Single Refraction at Plane

Surfaces," " Refraction at Curved Surface-Lenses,"
"Dispersion," "Optical Instruments," "The Eye,"
" Interference-Diffraction," "Double Refraction and
Polarisation," and on " Interference of Polarized
Light."

The Foundations of Geometjy, by Edward T. Dixon
(Cambridge : Deighton, Bell & Co.) This is practi-
cally a new system of geometry based more or less
on psychological data. It| is a work calculated to
stimulate criticism, and the author boldly invites it.

The Naturalist of Cumhrae. Being the Life of
David Robertson, by his friend, the Rev. Thomas R.
R. Stebbing (London: Kegan Paul «S: Co.) It is
not every man who has such a " Life " of himself as
this written whilst he is still living. Dr. Smiles set
the example of raising literary statues to living
heroes. Nevertheless, this book is altogether a de-
lightsome one, relating the early and brave struggles
of a worthy man, who stuck to business with such
perseverance that for years past he has been able to
devote himself wholly to natural history pursuits.
David Robertson is one of the most amiable and
modest of men ; a quiet, unassuming, but indefatig-
able worker, who will, we sincerely hope, live for
many years to come. Our readers should not fail to
procure this entertaining and instructive book.

The Book of Aquaria, by the Rev. Gregory C.
Bateman, and Reginald A. R. Bennett (London: L.
Upcott Gill). We have already noticed Mr. Bate-
man's book on Fresh-water Aquaria. It is here
reproduced^ with Mr. Bennett's treatise on Marine
Aquaria added, so that the two make up a handy
book of reference for all aquarium keepers.

Pasteur and Rabies, hy T. M. Dolan (London:
G. Bell & Sons). Dr. Dolan herein goes a " crusher "
against Pasteur's experiments connected with hy-
drophobia, which he not only disbelieves but
absolutely condemns. He heartily declaims against
what he calls " Vaccinomania." Readers of Pasteur
and other similar experimenters will here find all
that can be strongly stated on the other side.

The Honey Bee : Its Natural History, Anatomy,
and Physiology, by T. W. Cowan (London : Houl-
ston & Son). The lauthor is a well-known writer
and authority on the subject which this prettily got
up book deals with. The part devoted to the
anatomy of the bee will interest all naturalists.
There is an abundance of original illustrations ; and
although Mr. Cowan has found himself obliged to
deal with the subject in a very concise manner, it is
not the less clear and highly readable on that account.
We are pleased to draw the special attention of all
bee-keepers to this excellent little manual.

The Natural Food of Man, by Dr. Emmet Dens-
more (London : Pewtress & Co.), is a brief but clever
statement of opinion against the use of bread, cereals,
pulses, and all kinds of starch foods. We cordially
recommend the book to all our vegetarian readers,
many of whom will find new arguments therein.

HARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

79

THE SPARROW.

DOUBTLESS, many ^vill say wlien they see the
heading of this paper, surely enough has been
said about this bird. What more can be wanted ?
Nevertheless, the fact is, that not half its true
history has been written. It is not my intention to
write anything like a history, but I wish to state the
peculiarities in the bird I have met with during the
past breeding season. Last season, and the four
previous seasons, I was inquisitive enough to look into
the domestic arrangements of these birds, and found
that each season gave a different result.

The clutches of eggs of last season, 1890, were
larger or longer than those of 1889. In that season
I did not obtain a clutch of six eggs, but in the
season just passed I obtained four clutches containing
six eggs each, and five eggs very commonly formed
the clutch. Taking the season all through, the
clutches gave an average of four and a half eggs
each, and the average of the broods was not quite
three and a half young birds ; this is the highest
average I have met with. The discrepancy between
the eggs and brood was not caused by the infertility
of the eggs, for the eggs, as a whole, showed a very
high percentage of fertility, but in many cases by
incubation ceasing after the embryo was well formed,
and also by some of the young birds dying in the
nest. The former I found when examining a
number of clutches in a very advanced state of
incubation. The dead or dying young birds are as a
rule carried out and dropped at a short distance from
the nest. I saw an unusual number of these little
outcasts last season, owing, I believe, to the great
fertility of the eggs.

A curious feature exhibited itself in the eggs. In
many of the clutches there was a small egg, not
pygmean, but perfect ; in previous seasons I have met
with one or two like instances, but last season it was
of frequent occurrence. In the sixty clutches I have
jDreserved it is quite conspicuous. I also met with
what I consider to be a very great curiosity, that
being a genuine pygmean egg ; it is about the size of a
blue tit's egg, it weighed sixteen grains and contained
a small quantity of albumen. It is the only specimen
I have ever seen or heard of. It was in a nest with
three others of the ordinary size, two being of a light
colour, the third of a slaty-grey like the pygmy. In
the July number of this Journal I see recorded, by
Mr. Tracy, of Ipswich, that another sparrow's egg
had been found marked at the smaller end. I have
not been fortunate enough to obtain a specimen,
neither did I see any trace of smaller end colouring
amongst the four hundred sparrow's eggs I examined
during the season. Nevertheless, the peculiarity
showed itself in the eggs of several other birds. The
eggs of 1890 and 1889 showed a greater percentage
of fertility than those of the previous seasons, and
comparing the clutches of the two seasons they are

very much alike in colouring, but if the eggs of the
past season had been of a lighter colour I should have
considered my theory of fertility and colour running
together to have fallen through ; however, I have the
eggs to corroborate my statement.

I fail to understand why these birds are so erratic
in their nidification ; they appear to have no fixed
type of nest, like nearly all other birds, but the nest
is made to suit the site selected for it. The nearest
approach to a fixed type is when the nest is built in
a tree or bush, then it is of a domed bulky structure
with an entrance at the top. Then, again, they have
no fixed type of egg : the eggs vary very much in
size, shape and colour. I know of no bird belonging
to its family which lays such a large egg in propor-
tion to its size, some of them measuring nearly one
inch in length. Many will measure '98, but I have
never found a perfect egg fully an inch long. They
prefer the society of man more than any other bird,
and although greatly persecuted and maligned they
can hold their own against all comers.

I read with much regret the sentence passed upon
them in this Journal by Mr. C. Parkinson. However,
it is to be hoped that it will not be carried out.

The following figures give the average of the
broods for the past five seasons.

1886 Young birds .
18S7 „ „ .

1 888
1889
1890

04

J4

31
3

Every one must know that it is almost impossible
to get at exact figures, but the foregoing give the
full average ; however, I have not the slightest doubt
if more exact figures could be obtained that the
average of the broods for the past five years would
not exceed three young birds.

Popular opinion — which is always wrong — is that
the sparrows have large broods, but as my investiga-
tion has been going on several of my sceptical friends
find that they have been labouring under a very false
impression as to the number of young birds in each
brood.

Having seen my little friends breaking up various
kinds of beetles, I thought I would see what they had
to say to some fine fat cockroaches, so I turned some
on the lawn ; they were very soon amongst them.
Some of the birds appeared at first afraid to attack
the largest of these black-looking insects, but only
one escaped by reaching cover, and he would have
shared the fate of his companions had not the birds
been frightened away.

Joseph P. Nunn.

We are sorry to notice the death of Mr. Wm.
Davies, F.G.S., lately of the British Museum, to
whom many old students of geology were indebted
for assistance.

So

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

THE SQUARE-TAILED WORM.
Bv THE Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S.

President of the Wesley Scientific Society, Author
of ' Flowers and Flower Lore.'

TO anyone except an enthusiastic lover of nature
the idea of grubbing among the grass, stones,
mud and rubbish in search of such unattractive
creatures as worms must be perfectly monstrous, and
we quite sympathize with those matter-of-fact folk
who take the worm-hunter to be a candidate for the
lunatic asylum. We do not exactly see, however,
why it is worse to dig for worms for scientific than
for piscatorial uses, and in all fairness the angler and
the naturalist should be made to sail in the same boat
in this respect ; if indeed the knight of the rod, who
merely sacrifices the poor worms for his own delecta-
tion is worthy a place beside the knight of the scalpel
whose aim is to further the interests of scientific
research and extend our knowledge of God and His
works.

Among our native worms there is one with a square
tail {Allurus tdraedrns, Eisen) whose story has never
yet been fully told by any English author so far as I
am aware. It has been somewhat fully studied on
the Continent, and at least one English writer has
given us details of its anatomy, but so far all has been
of a technical, unpopular character. When I speak
of Allurus as the square-tailed worm I wish it to be
understood that the term must be used in a modified
sense, as we have one or two other worms which
sometimes present this peculiarity, but not in so
marked a degree. It was on account of the peculiar

tailed worm. Duges the same year gave an account
of it in the Annales des sciences naturelles under the
title of Enterion Aniphisbana. His reason for

Fig. 56.— Anterior portion seen from above (dorsal) : pr, pros

^..^^■Bi

• Fig. 55. — Allurus.

shape of the hinder half or posterior end that the
worm, when separated from the old genus Lumbricus,
because of the male pore being on the thirteenth
segment, and made the type of a new genus, was
named AUurus from the Greek words alios, another
or different, and oura, tail. I shall endeavour to
present what I have to say to the reader under three
heads, in which the History, Description, and Distri-
bution of the worm will be set forth.

I. THE HISTORY OF ALLURUS.

Allurus was apparently unknown to Linnaeus, the
father of modern science, who was very poorly in-
formed in worm-lore. Savigny, who discarded the
Linnean term Lumbricus, and adopted the Grrecised
word Enterion (from the Enteron of Aristotle), is the
first author to give us any information respecting it.
In Cuvier's Histoire des progres des sciences nalurelles,
he calls the worm Enterion Ictraedritin, or the square-

Fig. S7- — Allurus: segments 1-18. a, parasitic vorticella ;
d, dorsal pores ; cr, crop ; c^, calciferous gland ; />•, pros-
tomium ; £^z, gizzard ; inj>, male pore.

adopting the latter name is to be found in the fact
that the worm can go as readily backwards as for-
wards, after the fashion of the serpent of which

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

8i

Lucanus sang. Nine years later Duges wrote again
on worms in the same periodical, but put his worm
by the side of Savigny's, and spoke of them as distinct
species. He now calls them Lumbricus, and says of
Ihe first (Z. tctracdrus) that the clitellum is composed
of seven segments ending with the 28th, and the
worm is small and fragile, frequenting the neighbour-
hood of stagnant waters, and crawling out at night in
their vicinity. Of his own species (Z. ainphishicna)
Zic says that there are six segments to the clitellum,
which again ends on the 28th, and the habitat is the
same. It differs, however, from the other not only
in the number of segments which go to form the
girdle or clitellum, but also in its smaller size, the
prismatic and crenelated form of the tail, and the
semi-lunar shape of the lip or prostomium, which in
one case (Z. tetraedrus) is only slightly angled on the
side of the following segment, whereas the lip of the
■other species cuts the segment completely. The
colour of the one (Z. tctracdrus) is a dull brown,
whereas it is violet in the other, and has a tendency
to iridescence. These distinctions appear to have
iieen overlooked to a large extent by later writers.

Fig. 58.— Seta (with five muscular attachment?, a) and
spinets.

In 1843 lloffmeister gave the worm a new name
(Z. agilis), calling it the agile worm, which is very
accurate, but not so characteristic as the names already
given by Savigny and Duges, as there are others
quite as active. Though it still continued to attract
attention, no alteration was made in the terminology
till 1870, when Eisen first recognised it as a distinct
genus, and called it Allurus, not merely on account
of its shape, but because the male pore, or vulva as it
was formerly called, is found on the thirteenth instead
of on the fifteenth segment as in Lumbricus. Eisen
has also recognised the existence of certain well-
marked differences among the various specimens
which he has examined, and he has named two or
three varieties. I believe that in some instances
specific rank will be ultimately accorded to some of
1 he varieties, a point to be discussed in our next section.
Since Eisen's day Allurus has been still further
studied by Rosa, Beddard, and others, and I have
been able from my own researches to confirm and
amplify their accounts of this curious worm. The
following table will present the historical data in a

compact form, and enable the student readily to turn
to the earlier monographs and works where the
subject is discussed.

1S28. Entcrion tctraedruvi, Savigny (Cuvier,
" Histoire des Progres des Sciences natur-
elles." Ser. ii., vol. iv., p. 17, or vol. ii.
No. 20, p. III).

182S. Entcrioji Amphisbaeiia, Duges ("Annales
des Sciences naturelles." Ser. i., vol. xv.,
p. 293, Plate 9, fig. 19, 20, 24).

1S37. L^imbriciis tetraedrus, and Liunbricus anip/iis-
baena, Duges ("Ann. des Sc. nat.," Ser.
ii., vol. viii., pp. 17, 23).

1S43. Lumbricus agilis, lloffmeister (Wiegmann,
"Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte," p. 191,
tab. ix. fig. 6; " Familie der Regen-
wiirmer," 1845, p. 36).

1870. Allurus tctracdrus, Eisen ("Ofv. af Kongl.
Vetensk. Akad. Forh.," p. 966 ; ibid.
1873, No. 8, p. 54).

Other references will be given under the next
section.

II. DESCRIPTION OF ALLURUS.

It will be well, before I enter upon a detailed
description of the square-tailed worm, to explain one
or two of the technical terms in common use in this
branch of science. The extreme anterior or fore-part
of the worm's body is called the prostomium, because
it is before and above the mouth (stoma). It is
sometimes spoken of, less technically, as the lip. On
either side of the body, usually about midway between
the lip and the swollen portion, one finds either a
protuberance or a depression. Here the male pore is
situated, sometimes on papillae, at other times sunk
below the surface of the epidermis, and detected with
difficulty. Its position and appearance, like the shape
of the prostomium, is of great help in the identification
of species. The swollen portion in an adult worm is
called the clitellum, it is also popularly known as the
girdle, while cingulum is the term in favour with
some authors. Along the back there exist a number
of minute apertures connected with the co;lom which
are known as the dorsal pores, while there exist
under or near the clitellum in certain species other
pores called ' tubercula pubertatis.' Internally we
find numerous glands and organs whose functions can
only be understood by those who have read some
account of the anatomy and physiology of the worm.
If we take the external characters first, we shall
find that Allurus ranges from one to two inches in
length, but is capable of stretching to nearly three
inches when hastening away from its pursuer. It
varies greatly in colour, as we have already seen,
from a beautiful rich yellow to dull brown, and from
a light brown to violet with iridescence. It has a
square-tail, containing usually about forty segments,
making the total number of sediments for the whole

82

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

body from seventy to eighty. I took an example the
other day with sixty segments behind the chteUum.
The ditelhim often varies in colour from the rest of
the body, which it sometimes appears to encircle
entirely. It commences on the 22 nd segment usually,
and extends to the 27th, but the glandular :cells of
the clitellum extend to other segments as well. The
male pore is on the 13th segment, and may be easily
recognised, as it runs parallel with the segment-
divisions, and is placed on either side of the body,
somewhat on the under-surface, or ventrally. Beddard
thinks the spermathecns are on segment 8, which bears
also rod-shaped setre.* The dorsal pores commence
between the 3rd and 4th or the 4th and 5th segments.
The ordinary setae are similar to those of our other
native worms, but I have found minute processes on
the extremity which projects outwards, similar to those
described on some foreign species. The internal
extremity is attached to its sac by fine muscular
threads. They have a itendency to split up into 8
rows rather than appear in 4 pairs, and are about 2
centimetres long, or nearly half the width of the
body. The tiibercida ptihertatis are said to occur on
the 22nd, 23rd and 24th segments, I have so far
failed to see them. For external characters, the
following works may be consulted in addition to
those already given. Grube, " Familien der Annel-
iden," 1851, p. 145; Oerley, "A Magyarors zagi
Oligochastak Fatmaja," 18S0, p. 598-601 ; Rosa, " I
Lumbricidi del Piemonte," Torino, 1884, p. 51 ; Ude,
"Zeitschrift fiir Wissen. Zool.," 1885, p. 139;
Johnston, " Catalogue of British Worms," p. 61.

Owing to the small size attained by Allurus, it is
somewhat difficult to dissect the worm in the ordinary
way, so as to obtain perfectly reliable results, and it
therefore becomes necessary to prepare sections by
the microtome. My results differ slightly in some
respects from those of Beddard.* He gives the gizzard
one segment only (viz. the 17th), whereas in the worms
I have examined the crop occupied 15 and 16, the
gizzard 17 and 18, Thenephridia seem to commence
in segment 7. I have found 5 pairs of '^seminal
reservoirs in segments 8-12 inclusive, being one pair
more than Beddard reports. I find 2 pairs of sperm-
athecse, one in segment 8, and one in segment 9, and
the calciferous glands, of which I find one pair, are in
segment 10, just in front of the middle pair of seminal
reservoirs. Here again I diffen from Beddard ; and
the most reasonable explanation of this fact, I think,
lies in the suggestion that we have been working on
distinct species which have not yet been differentiated.
In addition to what have been usually regarded as
typical specimens, I have met with a totally distinct
variety, which I formerly called flavus, but which I
find has been named luteus by Eisen. It is of a
beautiful, rich yellow colour, with orange clitellum,

* My further researches, since this paper was written, clearly
point to the existence of at least two, if not more, distinct
species.

and a good deal smaller than the type. I found it
plentifully by the Fclen, near Carlisle, in 1890, and
have taken one solitary specimen this year at Calverley,.
near Leeds. The following is a list of the species
and varieties hitherto named by authors, which will
probably shortly be amended and enlarged : I..
AHurus tetracdnis (Eisen) ; 2. Alhirus amphishana
(Duges) ; 3. Alliims, var. obscuriis (Eisen) ; 4.
Allunis, var. hitciis (Eisen).

For the anatomy one may consult Beddard ia
" Quart. Journ, Micr. Soc." 1888, Vol. vi., pt. ii., pp.
365-71, pi. XXV.; Rosa, "I Lumbricidi del Pie-
monte," p, 51 scq.; Ude, " Zeitschrift fiir Wiss.
Zool." 18S5, p. 139, &c.

III. DISTRIBUTION OF ALLURUS.

Eisen has described it from specimens found in
Sweden and Beddard from a single worm sent from
Teneriffe. Rosa has recorded it from North Italy ;
Oerley from Hungarj-, where also the varieties already
named exist. Hoffmeister found it in North
Germany, Duges in France (probably about Mont-
pellier), in which country more recent observers have
also collected it, but Kulagin does not mention it in
his recent enumeration of Russian species of earth-
worms. Oerley classes it as " Palaearktic."

It was first mentioned as British by Johnston in
1865, a single specimen being at that time in the
British Museum. It was found in Devon, and I have
found it in Yorkshire and Cumberland, together with
the yellow variety. See Johnston's "Catalogue of
British Worms," p. 61 ; Beddard, op cit. p. 365 ; and
Oerley, "A Magyar. Oligochaetak Faunaja," 1880,
p. 599 et scq.

LORD TENNYSON'S FLOWERS.

NOW that the thrushes have begun their morning
and evening song, and the girls are offering
the bunches of wild snowdrops for sale in the streets,,
our hearts begin to long for the spring flowers (never
more prized than after this long and trying winter),,
and we begin to anticipate our coming pleasures by
turning to the favourite passages that tell of our
darlings. And who will bring the flowers of spring
and summer before us as well as Lord Tennyson?
Who else has distinguished, with suitable epithet,
one wayside flower from another, and given to his
exquisite landscapes the true finishing flower-touch?'
Other poets have sung in honour of flowers: Alfred
Austin has celebrated the primrose in charming
verse ; Wordsworth has immortalised the lesser
celandine ; Burns has glorified the "bonnie gem " —
the daisy — and thus re-echoed the praises of old
Chaucer ; but none has been at once so catholic in
taste, so accurate in localisation, so exquisite in
selection of epithet as the Laureate. This love of

HARD IVICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

83

flowers is from the beginning ; it is as evident in the
•earhest poems as in the latest ; it is charming every-
where. In the early poems — published sixty years
iigo— we have the flowers in the uld-fashioned
Lincolnshire garden drooping under the action of the
autumn frosts.

Heavily hangs the broad sunflower.
Over its grave i' the earth so chilly ;

Heavily hangs the hollyhock.
Heavily hangs the tiger lily.

Perhaps the very garden in which, after his
•departure,

Unwatched the garden bough shall sway,
The tender blossom flutter down,
Unloved that beech will gather brown,

This maple burn itself away :

Unloved the sunflower, shining fair,
Ray round with flame her disk of seed.
And many a rose-carnation feed

With summer spice the humming air.

And around, or below, where the great Fenland
■swept away to the great sea :

Far through the marish, green and still.
The tangled watercourses slept,
Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow,

and with

The silvery marish flowers that throng
The desolate pools and creeks among.

And with these we must quote, as characteristic
of the scenery among which his earlier years were
jjassed, "two of the most beautiful and melancholy
lines in our language, " as Henry Kingsley truly calls
them :

When from the dry, dark wold the summer airs blow cool.
On the oat-grass, and the sword-grass, and the bulrush in
the pool.

The meadow- and marsh-flowers are chiefly
spoken of in the "May Queen " :

And by the meadow trenches blow the faint sweet cuckoo-
flowers.

And the wild marsh marigold shines like fire in swamps and
hollows grey.

What a gleam of first May time those two lines
'bring with them ! One can see the water-meadows of
our Dorsetshire Stour, or of the Salisbury Avon,
winding to and fro from Ringwood to Christchurch,
where the wide moist meadows are on fire with marsh
marigold.

In that lovely " Dirge," how he delights to bring
together over the quiet grave, "the bramble-roses,
faint and pale," "the gold-eyed king-cups fine,"
"the frail blue bells," "the rare broidry of the
purple clover," till, as Shelley said, "making one in
love with death to think one should be buried in so
■sweet a place."

Almost always the wild flowers are spoken of. In
-the spring " by ashen roots the violets blow," a line
which once guided us to a lovely clump of white
•T^-iolets after a fruitless search elsewhere. Following
Shakspere, he thinks how, when Arthur Hallam
lies at rest in quiet Clevedon, " Of his ashes may be

made the violet of his native land." So Shakspere,

of Ophelia, " From her fair and unpolluted flesh may

violets spring." But both our poets had l)een

anticipated —

Non e manibus illis,
Non e tumulo, fortuiiataque favUla
Nascuntur violae 1

The orchis, " the foxglove spire with its dappled
bells," "the little speedwell's darling blue," "deep
tulips dashed with fiery dew," " laburnums,
dropping wells of fire," each in turn recalling some
pleasant spot, it may be in damp spring copse, or
meadow, or by sunny bank, or in sloping garden.
The glorious reaches of blue when the hyacinths
carpet the ground are specially noted, for we read
how Lancelot and Guinevere

Rode under groves that looked a paradise

Of blossom, over sheets of hyacinth

That seemed the heavens upbreaking thro' the earth.

That is a bit of forest. We saw the verj' place last
spring, quite close to Queen's Bower, near Brocken-
hurst, where, beneath stately beeches, the ground
was covered with blue-bells, as we call them.

The mention of the delicate wind-flowers softens
the rugged speech of the wild "Northern Farmer"
as he tells how the keeper was shot dead, and lay on
his face " down i' the woild enemies," a wonderfully
pathetic touch, as it shows you the dead man with
the delicate petals of the flowers whispering round
the motionless head.

Do you want a broad summer landscape, with the
scent of summer and the promise of autumn ? Here
it is : —

When summer's hourly mellowing change
May breathe with many roses sweet
Upon the thousand waves of wheat

That ripple round the lonely grange.

Can you not see the " waves of shadow pass over
the wheat," and smell the fragrance of the wind that
has travelled over the many roses? Surely some one
has painted that "grey old grange" amid its far
waving corn !

The simple happy cottage-flowers, "traveller's
joy," "'honeysuckle," rosy sea of gillyflowers,
"close-set robe of jasmine," "lily-avenue," and so
on, are noted, one by one, in a pretty passage in
"Aylmer's Field," describing the houses of Sir
Aylmer's tenantry.

But the most splendid use of the common flowers
is in the finest of all his pieces on public events, the
" Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington."

Not once, or twice, in our rough island story.

The path of duty was the way to glory ;

He that walks it, only thirsting

For the right, and learns to deaden

Love of self, before his journey closes.

He sJiall find the stuhborii thistle bursting

Into glossy purples, -which outredde>i

All voluptuous garden roses.

The thistle referred to is the lovely purple-headed
one that grows on the down-sides, with a more

S4

jy.4 R D W] CKE • S S CIENCE- G OSS IP.

silvery leaf and a for more '" glossy purple" than the
common roadside sort. The use of this as an
emblem of the unexpected reward of dutj- honestly
performed, is one of the most telling selections in
English poetTT.

The way in which the commonest flower depends
for its existence on laws the mcst profound and far-
reaching is brought before us by the last quotation we
most make.

Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you Oct of the crannies :

Hold TOLi her«, root and all, in my hand.

Little flower ; but if I could understand

What yo-- are, root and all, and all in all,

I should know what God and man is.

^\*. K. Gill.
£versley. Pooh.

R05SEXDALE RKIZOPODS.

No. 2.

\S premised in mv last communication, which
was introductory to the series, I now have to
describe several forms of the naked lobose Protoplasts
which have come under my own observation. Fiist
and foremost of these is the well-known and often-
described Anuzba protius. This animal is familiar
enough to the merest microscopical tyro, as it is
found in the sediment of almost every pond and ditch.
It presents itself under the ' magic tube,' as a shape-
less mass of jelly ; round the outer edge is a clear
portion, the ectosarc, free from granules ; while the
interior endosarc is apparently more fluid, and con-
tains a variable quantity of granules and food particles
in different stages of digestion. If carefully watched,
it will be seen to push out, at one or more points,
rounded lobes of the clear ectosarc, as if, to use a
simile of Professor Leidy, it had exnded or sweated
numerous drops of liquid. These " lobes quickly
elongate and assume theforms of digitate pseudopods,"
and as they lengthen the more fluid endosarc flows
in. While these new processes are being pushed out,
others are being retracted, and these Protean-like
changes of form go on in such a way as to result in
a slow, onward movement of the animal. The
smaller forms have generally little colour, and these
are of most frequent occurrence in this district.
Others, however, found in waters having much or-
ganic matter in a state of decay, or where Algous
food is plentiful, have considerable colour. This is
found to be due to a varietj" of materials, which if
carefully examined, resolve themselves into the
foUowing elements. Fine and coarse granules ;
rounded bodies of the nature of starch granules ;
yellow and brown oil-like drops ; coloured water-
drops ; sand-grains ; minute crystals ; yellow, brown
or green food-b^lls, often surrounded by a clear space
fiUed with liquid ; and more recently ingested food,
such as Desmids, Diatoms, Zoospores, fragments ot
Oscillatoria and ether Algae. In addition there are

generally a discoid somewhat granular Nucleus, and
near it, the contracting vesicle, or pulsating organ,
often of a delicate pink hue. Amoeba can take food
at any part of its surface, and the discharge of effete
matter is likewise ejected from any part, but accord-
ing to several authorities, more frequently from that
which at the moment happens to be posterior. On
coming in contact with suitable food material,
Amceba puts forth a portion of the clear ectosarc, and
surrotmds the object, which subsequently appears to
sink into the endosarc, becoming enclosed in a
vacuole, in which by a process of digestion it becomes
indistinguishable from other food-balls, previously
ingested. They vary greatly in size, from Jj or larger
to gjij of an inch. There are many points in the
economy of Amceba which I must pass over, owing to
limitations of space ; sufficient has been written,
however, to enable us to judge of the correctness of
some remarks of Professor Carpenter, in his " Intro-
duction to the Study of the Foraminifero." He says,
" A little particle, of apparently homogeneous jelly.

Fig. 53- — P. lalcsa.

Fig. CO. — P. '.:lcsa.

Fig. 6i. — P. lobosa.

Fig. 62. — A. z-illcsa.

changing itself into a greater variety of form than the
fabled Proteus, laying hold of its food without
members, swallowing it without a mouth, digesting
it without a stomach, appropriating its nutritious
material without muscles, feehng (if it has any power
to do so) without nerves, propagating itself without
genital apparatus, and not only this, but in many
instances forming shelly coverings of a symmetry and
complexity not surpassed by those of any testaceous
animals."' Fig. 59 shows a very common form
here, from clear ponds ;' it is small, with the pseudo-
podia somewhat radiately arranged, and shows the
Cont vesicle. Fig. 60 a larger form, also com-
mon, with Diatoms, .kc, recently ingested, no

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

8:;

Nucleus, or Cont. vesicle visible. Fig. 6i, a form
with rather conical pseudopods, sarcode stretched
over a long Diatom. The Rhizopods of this germs.
possessing no definate or constant figure, species
mongers have taken foil advantage of their oppor-
txmities, and have given specific names to a number
of slightly different forms. There are, however, a
few, which exhibit permanent differences, which in
the present state of our knowledge, it may be as well
to distinguish in this way.

Amxla villosa, which is locally tm common, differs

63, larger form with three anterior lobes, Nncleos,
and two or three Cont. vesicles.

Amaha radwsa is another small and inactiTe
spedes, very rare here. Indeed, so rare is it, that I
have never found it in any of the numerous places
where I habimally collect. My first and only
specimens were taken from a plate which had been
under a Fem-case. There were literally thousands
of them, among the floccose sediment, along with
other obscure Rhizopods (Vampyrella, dec.) and
Rotifera vulgaris and PhUodjna erytlwthaJma. They

Fig. c:. — .-:. radijsa.

Fig. 6-. — A. z-err:i::rs.

Tig- ^5 — A. radidia.

Fig. 6S. — A. Z'rrntcesa.

Tig. 6^ — PeJjmryjca •riUoia
begrnning to pet forth its
pseudopodia.

r^M2^^,

Fig. 66. — A. tHZosa.

>>^<

M

Fig. -^.—FcS-

.: ;z Tulasa in motian.

ffom the preceding in several particulars ; it has a
distinct anterior and posterior region ; the villous
part, which is knob-like, is always posterior, and is
covered with persistent, prickle-like pseudopodia ;
the anterior pan is broadish ; ectosarc, a well-defined
zone, and its general form is irregularly cl::vate,
occasionally with two or three broau, anterior lobes.
There is a single, generally large Cont- vesicle
posteriorly situated, and a little in front of this the
Xncleas. Size from ^ to -jlj, of an inch. Found
among mosses, Algs, and frequently in Sphagnum.
Fig. 62, small form with Cont. vesicle. Fig.

have from two or three to a dozen tapering pseudo-
pods, and these may be short or two or three times
the diameter of the body. This form has little
colour, and I never found any with food-balls or
ccdouTed drops of any kind. There is generally a
distinct Nucleus, and one or several Cont. vesicles.
It is when freely floating that they exhibit their
characteristic radiate form ; when crawling this is
somewhat lost, as the pseudopcKiia are either retracted,
or a few only are put forth in the direction of motion.
WTien calmly floating the pseudopodia may be seai
shortening or lengthening, or slowly bending back-

86

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

■wards and forwards. Size about ojjj of an inch.
Fig. 64, an ordinary form showing Nucleus
and Cont. vesicle. Fig. 63, small form, which with-
drew all the jJseudopodia except one ; this although
constantly moving, lengthening or shortening, re-
anained persistent for over an hour during which it
was under observation (Fig. 66). Another specimen
with longer pseudopodia.

The next form, Ainivba verrucosa, is the last of the
L-.iaked lobose Rhizopods I have found in this district.
The illustrations (Figs. 67, 68) give a fair idea
of young specimens ; older ones are a little larger and
generally contain more Algous food, though not in
■such quantity as to destroy their translucency. It is
■said to be very common, but I have very rarely found
it, and unfortunately I have omitted to note the exact
locality. It is, I think, a good species. Ordinarily
it presents a quadrately rounded form, with broad
•expansions of the ectosarc, which in this species is
unusually distinct. Old specimens are very sluggish,
but younger ones are active, and when moving across
the held of the microscope, the broad end is always
in front, so that there is a distinct anterior and pos-
terior part. The Cont. vesicle is large and posterior ;
Nucleus generally obvious, a little in front of the
Cont. vesicle. The creatun^ does not put forth distinct
pseudopods, but the ectosarc rolls forwards as a short,
broad lobe and the endosarc gradually follows so as
to maintain the same relative position. The creasing
of the ectosarc, appearing as fine, more or less
permanent lines, reaching from the back forward as
far as the endosarc, is very characteristic, and will
greatly assist the student in identifying the species.
IFig. 67. Specimen with large Cont. vesicle
and single Nucleus. Fig. 68, another with
Cont. vesicle partially contracted, food-particles
present ; these generally consist of Oscillatorian frag-
ments. In the naked lobose Rhizopods there are four
Genera and about eight Species. Amoeba, as de-
scribed. Pelomyxa, slug-like, with wave-like expan-
sions of the ectosarc ; Dinamceba, whose pseudopods
are long, conical, sometimes furcate ; with surface of
body and pseudopods covered with spicules of motion-
less cilia ; and Ouramreba, with fixed filamentous
appendages. These all belong to the sub-Order
Lobosa, and are of great interest, but as I have not
yet found them, winter having effectually put a stop to
collecting, I omit all further reference to them here.
In my next paper I shall commence the description of
the testaceous forms, illustrating the chief varieties of
the various species found in Rossendale.

P.S. — Pelomyxa villosa is another of the naked
Rhizopods, which, while absent from many ponds, is
yet numerous in others. It is closely allied to Aniccba
villosa, if indeed it is not a state or condition of that
Rhizopod. It differs from it chiefly in having
iiumerous Nuclei and Cent, vesicles scattered
through the body mass. It is one of the very largest
forms, and its endosarc is crowded with dark granules,

a considerable quantity of quartz sand ; and, being a
voracious feeder, Desmids, Diatoms, and other Algre.
When at rest it is of sub-globular form, but frequently
buds forth small lobes of its clearer ectosarc, as a pre-
liminary to activity (see Fig. 69). The somewhat
globular villous patch, which is always posterior, has
a prehensile function. Nuclei small and numerous.
The same description is said to apply to the contract-
ing vesicles, but in the specimen from which the
drawing was made there was most certainly one very
conspicuous Cont. vesicle. Colour, very variable,
but by transmitted light, usually a dark grey or brown,
in some cases approaching to black.

J. E. Lord.
Rai^itcnstall,

OUR LANE.

A LANE, an English country lane ! To the
dweller in a city's murky streets what more
suggestive of peace and beauty ? In the very word
there is a ring of rusticity ; it tells us that it is not a
high- but a bye-way, one off the beaten track — one
more secluded, peaceful, fragrant. The thought of it
calls up visions of mossy banks and o'erarching trees,
sweet-smelling hawthorn hedges with eglantine and
bryony festooned, and gay with roses white, with
crimson tipped. Nor does the pleasant vision exist
only in the imagination of the poetic dreamer. Nay,
thank heaven ! in this our lovely native land [there
still are left to us a thousand country lanes, as rich in
beauty as they were in ages long since passed.

'Tis not, however, of lanes in general that I would
now discourse, but of one particular lane — that
special, secluded, restful spot of earth on which it is
our hap to dwell, and which we love to designate
par excellence " Onx Lane."

In this our sin and sorrow stricken world 'twere
hard to find a spot so sacred to peace that no dis-
turbing element will e'er be found within its precincts,
and, mayhap, the occasional inroad of merry school-
children, full of boisterous mirth, or lumbering wain,
somewhat harshly jingles upon the ear of the recluse,
but such infrequent breaks but serve to enhance the
restful atmosphere which here prevails ; nor do I
begrudge the young ones their season of innocent
enjoyment ; to many of them it may be only far too
brief.

Our lane is situated in a lovely, richly-wooded,
old-world western county, whose benighted inhabit-
ants slowly yield to changes of so-called moderir
progress, and as slowly help to swell the calendar of
crime. Beautiful for situation is it — in every season
charming. But 'tis in early summer — say in leafy
June— when from the thicket the mellow-throated
blackbird mingles his fluty notes with the bright
outpourings of the sweet-voiced thrush — when 'tis
brimful of birdsong, rustle of leafy shade, and hum

I

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

87

of happy insect life, that its beauty most commends
itself; for then, methinks, 'tis at its very best.

Its sinuous course extends through rich pastures
and mossy orchards, from the brook at the bottom of
our lovely valley, right away up and up, until it
widens out upon the breezy height some 900 feet or
more above the sea level. No unsheltered half-mile
course is this, for its steep banks are high, sur-
mounted with luxuriant liedges, and with lofty trees
o'er-arched, and even when "November chill blaws
loud wi' angry blast," the wanderer here may bid
defiance to the tempest. His upward glances may
discover the bowing and swaying of the tree-tops
before the forceful blast, which onward sweeps the
ruddy shower, and carpets the ground beneath with
glossy beech leaves ; but, through it all, as un-
disturbed his steps as separate his lot from the tumult
and harass of the outside world. Now and again,
sweet glimpses of the lofty hills and overhanging
woods afford him a foretaste of the treat in store
when he reaches I he topmost height, for his footsteps
lead him ever upward, until he emerges from the
shade into the breezy open, when what a glorious
prospect meets his eye ! Hills beyond hills, all
richly clothed with beech, and larch, and pine.
Here from this lofty ridge his eye embraces two
lovely valleys — thiSf " the Switzerland of England,"
the most sequestered and richly-wooded of the two ;
the most steep and narrow ; and from wood to wood
and hill to hill the eye may rove, until hill, and wood,
and cloud, all harmoniously blend in a mellow hazy
.distance. That^ more open and wide-spreading, its
bounding hills more sweeping in their contour, but
yielding as fair a scene, and behind that swelling
down descends the westering sun ; and whilst the
steep valley slopes are sleeping in deep shado%\-, the
fleecy cloudlets glow in his rays, and give fair pro-
mise of a bright to-morrow. Across the valley there
is Painswick Hill — nearly the highest point in the
county — and from it we see on the one hand the
Vale of Glo'ster, the Severn, and far beyond — on the
other, the hills and woods — the towns of Gloucester
and Cheltenham ; and out there, in the purple dis-
tance, the lofty Malvern Hills. Such scenes as these
mark epochs in one's life.

Here then, far removed from earth's hurly-burly,
rest awhile, inhale the breeze, fragrant with floral
odours innumerable, and rich with refreshment alike
to the jaded spirit and the weary body. No situation
more conducive to restful feelings than jthe summit of
some lofty eminence, some mountain peak, some
mighty swelling hill like this. Here on some turfy
couch reclining, at this high altitude one feels so
far removed from life's sore turmoil, the city's roar,
the strife of contending factions ; and soaring heaven-
ward, one strives to rise superior to the grovelling
things of earth. And yet, withal, how oft the
humbling thought obtrudes — How very, very small
am I ; yea, but an atom in an Universe.

Cast the eye whithersoever one will it lights upon
woods. There lies the largest of them all, said to be
one of the most extensive in the kingdom ; and there,
where those advancing wooded slopes, which, from
opposite sides of the ravine upward climb towards
the sky, consecrated to peace and beauty, is my
favourite resort.

Adown the steep hillside the pathway leads, until
we reach "the bottom." Here, sheltered in the
bosom of this lovely valley the outer world and I are
quit, and " every sense is joy." No storms — no chill-
ing blasts invade these bosky depths profound ;.
nor sight nor sound of higher animal life disturb the
stillness, save when the agile squirrel leaps from
branch to branch, or timid rabbit scampers across the
path, or jay's or magpie's discordant notes are heard.

Yet let it not be thought that these solitudes are
untenanted, for a myriad host of insect atoms hum,
and flit, and flutter out their happy day in the genial
sun-rays of this insect paradise. Butterflies innumer-
able disport themselves, and a long chain of wood
ants' nests skirt the sunny edge of the gloomy larch
wood. This exuberance of insect life betokens an
equally redundant flora ; indeed, in all my wanderings
never before was it my hap to light upon such a
wealth of floral beauty, nor from the appearance of
the first flower until the last withering leaf has beer-
swept from the bare woods fails there a display of
Nature's most beautiful productions. I have some-
times thought that not a flower that blooms but here
finds its representative — methinks a harmless fancy,
and one that I delight in.

Deep fringed with moisture-loving plants there,
too, meanders through this deep ravine a brooklet,,
and oft do I cast myself upon its mossy bank to con-
template the marvellous perfection of Nature's handi-
work. Call me not a visionary if I evoke bright
fantasies out of the sweet music of whispering winds —
the odours of thousand flowerets, and flutterings of
scaly wings in golden sunbeams. Not idly do I spend
my hour, for sadness I beguile, and homeward turn
my steps, mentally and physically refreshed.

The picture has another side. Not always is the
silence thus unbroken — nor ever is the solitude replete
with gentle sounds, for when summer's bright-hued
floral pageant has vanished, the song of wild bird is
hushed, and the year, no longer young, has yielded
to the decrepitude of age, then the howling tempest
rages and threatens, and the lofty tree-tops, respond-
ing to the sweep of the wind, pour out such wild
music as thrills the listener beneath, and transports
him in imagination to the lonely sea-shore where
roaring billows toss and heave. Delightful transi-
tion ! 'tis Nature in her varying mood, and her wild
harmonies how sweet.

Presage of blissful repose, comes the blessed even-
ing's fragrant breath, fitting termination this quiet
spot to a delightsome stroll. Here, then, wanderer,
rest, and whilst you gather " the harvest of a quiet

88

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

»

eye," let me discourse awhile anent the denizens of
" Our Lane."

And first to merit mention assuredly are those
ministers to our happiness, our little feathered friends.
They abound in our lane, and notably within the pre-
cincts of our garden and orchard, for here in my
berried shrubs, and ivy and other climber clothed
walls, they find food, shelter and protective care ;
here, unmolested, they build their curious nests, and
raise their young broods — 'tis to them a veritable
bird paradise.

My list mayhap embraces no great rarity, but in-
cludes— not excepting the nightingale — nearly all
most noted for their sweet song. Foremost let me
mention my sweet-voiced friend the common thrush
\Turdtis vuisiais) who much affects my garden.
Could I ever tire of his melodious outpourings ? I
trow not ; nor do I tremble for my fruit when I see
his lovely speckled breast beneath my shrubs, for
well I know that soon his tap-tap-tap upon his
favourite stone is the death-knell of the marauding
snail. Fearlessly, last summer, a pair built their
nest beneath the thatch of my summer-house, and
but five and a half feet from the ground, and although
I made a daily visit to the spot, and at but a foot
distant would stand and watch the sitting mother —
not once she fled her home, but, fixing her trustful
eyes on mine, calmly sat on.

Their near relation, too, the missel thrush {T. visci-
■vorus) is a frequent visitor, and until the last berry of
the mountain ash has been gathered frequents our
lane. Somewhat less welcome to me is the jetty
plumaged blackbird (T. vierida), for much as I delight
in the flute-like notes of this mellow-throated songster,
he lays my fruit under such heavy contribution that,
sometimes, methinks, I dearly pay for his sweet
music. Abundant though he is in all the bends and
twists of our lane, he most aff'ects our garden — as
does that shyest of birds, and sweetest singer of the
feathered choir, the blackcap (^Curnica atricapilla).
From the time of his arrival, about the first week in
April, until he takes his departure, about the end of
September, he much affects my shrubs, and pours
out his most tuneful notes from morn till eve. Sweet,
affectionate bird ; a thousand times welcome to the
fruit you claim as the guerdon of your delightsome
song.

{To be continued.)

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The Second Loan Exliibition of the Woolwich
District Natural History Society (President, the Rev.
J. W. Horsley), held at the Freemasons' Hall,
Mount Pleasant, was very successful. The exhibits
were of a high order, and represented most branches
of natural history. The collections of fossils, shells,
star-fish, Crustacea, coleoptera, lepidoptera, and

botanical specimens were very good, and contained
many rare species. There was also a large assort-
ment of African weapons, implements, spoils of the
chase, and many other curiosities too numerous to
mention. Throughout the evening various electrical
appliances and a number of microscopes were ex-
hibited.

The Easter Excursion of the Geologists' Associa-
tion will be to the Isle of Wight, under the direction
of Professor J. F. Blake and Mr. Thomas Leighton.

A NEW quarterly magazine has been started at
Leeds, under the title of " The Conchologist." It is
edited by Mr. W. E. Collinge.

The Annual Exhibition of the South London
Entomological and Natural History Society will be
held at the Bridge House Hotel, London Bridge,
S.E., on Wednesday and Thursday, the 15th and
1 6th of April next. On Wednesday it will be open
from 7 until 10.30 r.M. ; Thursday from i to6 and 7
till 10 P.M. Particulars and tickets can be obtained
of the Hon. Sec, Mr. H. W. Barker, %i Brayard's
Road, Peckham, S.E.

We are glad to inform our readers that the pro-
posed oological expedition to the Shetland Islands
has very properly been abandoned.

We have received a copy of the interesting
"Monthly Circular and Journal of Proceedings" of
the Huddersfield Naturalists' Society.

We have also received a copy of the useful *' List
of Microscopical Preparations " from ]\Ir. J. Sinel,
Jersey.

At the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society,
the Wollaston Medal was presented to Professor
Judd ; the Murchison Medal to Professor Brogger, of
Christiania ; the Lyell Medal to Professor
McKenny Hughes ; and the Bigsby Medal to Dr.
G. M. Dawson, of Ottawa. The balance of the
Wollaston Fund was presented to Mr. R. Lydekker;
that of the Murchison Fund to the Rev. R. Baron,
Antananarivo ; half of the balance of the Lyell Fund
to Dr. C. J. Forsyth-Major, of Florence ; and the
other half to Mr. G. W. Lamplugh.

Professor Victor Horsley, F.R.S., gave a
discourse on Hydrophobia at the Royal Institution,
on Friday, March 20th, in place of Professor W. E.
Ayston, F.R.S., who was unable to give his promised
lecture on Electric Meters, Motors, and Money
Matters.

The last part of the " Diatomiste," edited by
J. Tempere (London : W. P. Collins, 157 Great
Portland Street), contains four plates. This promises
to be the most important work on the Diatomacea ever
issued. It is being issued every three months.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSS/F.

89

M. Fremy has been able to manufacture rubies
■artificially, and has produced numerous rhombo-
hedric crystals identical with those found in nature.
The rubies are produced by calcining a mixture of
aluminium, red lead and potassium bichromate for
several hours in an earthenware crucible.

The celebration of the Jubilee of the Chemical
Society was held on Tuesday, February 24th.
There was a conversazione in the evening held at the
Goldsmiths' Hall, at which eight hundred were
present.

A PUBLIC meeting was held at the Shire Hall,
Chelmsford, on Wednesday evening, the i8th March,
to further the scheme of the Essex Field Club and
Chelmsford Museum for the establishment of a local
museum, laboratory, and library in the county town.
The occasion was one of great interest. Professor
Plower and other well-known scientists took part in
the proceedings.

Colonel Swinhoe, F.L.S.,gavea capitallantern
lecture before the members of the Croydon Micro-
scopical and Natural History Club, on March iSth,
on the interesting subject of " Mimicry in Nature."

Dr. J. E. Taylor, Editor of Science-Gossip,
concluded, on March 19th, a course of twelve lectures
(each of which was extensively reported) in connec-
tion with the Ipswich Museum, on " The Ingenuity,
Sagacity, and Morality of Plants."

MICROSCOPY.

The Royal Microscopical Society. —The
February number of the journal of the above society
contains, in addition to the well digested and use-
fully arranged "Summary of Current Researches,"
abstracts of the proceedings of the meetings, and the
following papers : — " Some Observations on the
Various Forms of Human Spermatozoa," by Dr.
R. L. Maddox ; and the address of the president
(Dr. C. T. Hudson), "On Some Doubtful Points in
the Natural History of the Rotifera."

"Journal of Microscopy and Nat. Science."
— The March number contains the following papers,
in addition to notes and excerpts : — "British Earth-
worms," by the Rev. H. Friend ; " Prehistoric Man
in Europe," by Mrs. Bodington ; "The Evolution
of Sex," by Dr. J. A. Smith, &c.

The Microscopical Society of Calcutta.—
The Third Annual Report of this flourishing society
for 1890 has been published. During the year the
following papers were read :— By J. Wood-Mason
(President), "On a Secondary Sexual Organ in
the Males of certain Prawns of the genus Peneus,"
and "On the Changes of Skin, and on the so-called
Pupa-Stage, of the Praying-Mantis {Tenodera aridi-

folia, var.) ;" by Dr. W.J. Simpson, "A Note on
the Bacillus of Leprosy, with specimens ;" by Dr. J.
Stevenson, "The Microscope Stand, with some
remarks on the Choice of a Microscope ;" by Mr. A.
Thomson, " On the Optical Principles of the Micro-
scope ;" by Mr. W. J. Lynch, "On a few Hints on
the Home Construction of Appliances for the Micro-
scope, with Exhibits ;" by Mr. W. J. Simmons,
three Resumes ; by Baboo Bhupendrasri Ghosha,
one Resume ; and by Mr. W. M. Osmond, " Bromide
Enlargements of Photo-micrographs," and a Silver
Print from an Enlarged Negative.

Mounting Corallines. — I have been trying to
mount corallines for the microscope with the animals
expanded out of their cells, I read in "Carpenter"
that osmic acid would cause the animals to expand
their tentacles so that they could be mounted. I
have tried that acid, but with no result. Can any of
the readers give me any help how to get the animals
to expand their tentacles and to kill them at the
same time, so as to be fit for mounting? — W. A.
Toiunei:

Mounting Cochineal Insects. — To ring, try
Hollis' glue. I have found this good in almost every
case, and always use it to ring, for I do not like white
zinc, &c., except as a finish ; though I never even care
for that, for the plain Hollis is all ready, and can be
used for immersion objectives. — V, A. Latham.

Micro-Marine Zoology at Home. — Those
who desire a delightful evening at home with the
microscope should procure one of the jars of living
marine objects sent out every fortnight by Mr. J.
Sinel, of Jersey. The latest to hand contained the
following specimens : — Lucernaria aia-iciila (in repro-
duction) ; o\z.oi IiiocJms striatus\\\'0[\.exa!oryo%; Alcyo-
iiidmtn papillosum, Mcmbraiiipora pilosa ; on the red
weed, one or two kinds of Campanularia and some
small Polyzoa ; Ci'isia dcnticidata, Spirorbis naiitiloidcs,
Syllis artnirallis ; one or two other micro-annelids ;
some young Rissoas ; Cystophium Dari^'inii, and one
or two other micro-amphipods ; Cytkere reniformis and
one or two other kinds of Entomostraca ; some small
Planarire ; various parasitic Infusorians, Diatoms, &c.,
&c., on the weed.

ZOOLOGY.

Physa Acuta in Scotland. — About July, 1887,
I found this shell in abundance in Banner Mill
Ponds, Aberdeen, but never thought of recording
the same in my journal. But, since I came to
London, Mr. Jenkins, M.C.S., Deptford, on one
occasion when visiting me saw them, and asked me
if I had ever mentioned them, as this was a new
locality. I said I never had. He took a few notes
and sent to "Conch. Journ." (see vol. vi., No. 8,

9°

HA RB WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

p. 270). A few additional notes might be of interest.
I sent to my brother, who is employed at the above
factory, a note asking him to get a few alive for me,
and made arrangements with him to get them here,
which he did on November 21st, 1890, when he sent
sixty-two live P. acuta, which I kept alive in tap-
water for a period ranging from six to twenty-one
days. Strange to say, all the largest specimens died
first. The ponds they are found in are filled with
hot water summer and winter, so I think the sudden
change from hot to cold was the cause of death.
Linimza pcregra is very plentiful in the same ponds,
but succumbed the same as P. acuta. There is a
distinct variety in the P. acuta that is white, and
much larger, and the outer lip seems to approach the
variety of L. pcregra, var. labiosa, but pure white — a
very pretty form, but not so common as type. The
above specimens when put in the tap-water were
quite lively, and night after night I sat and watched
their movements, which were very interesting. Mr.
Smith gave me the following information. He is
foreman at the Banner Mill, and since he came there,
that is, thirteen to fourteen years ago, they have
always had a place in the ponds, for the first time
he cleaned out one of the ponds he found them there,
but how they got there he could not tell me, but for
fourteen years they have lived and died in these
ponds, and never been heard of till now. This is
the first time P. acuta has been found in Scotland ;
that is to say, five hundred miles farther north than
any other locality, the other locality being London,
and, though not a British species, it is interesting to
hear of a Continental species getting so far north.
Large or small specimens of P. acuta are very
difficult to get during the months of September,
October, November, and December. Plenty of
small ones can be got, but I think the larger speci-
mens burrow in the mud at the bottom of ponds. —
W. D. Rac.

Dwarf var. of Helix Sylvatica. — At a place
about one thousand feet above Montreux, and some
little distance above a bridge known as the Pont de
Pierre, I have found a rather remarkable dwarf var. of
Helix Sylvatica, Drap. The species is pretty widely
distributed in the Alps, but is usually of a larger size
than in the above-named locality. It belongs to the
same section, Tacliea, Leach, of genus Helix as //.
iietnoralis, Linn., and hortensis, Miill. — C. P. Gloync.

The Flight of Birds.— In reference to the soar-
ing flight of birds, under notice in some papers lately,
I beg to offer my explanation of flotation in the air by
the ability of the bird to reduce or increase its specific
gravity by voluntary action. It may be surmised, it
is possible that the double larynx may be the means
whereby this is effected, where the trachea and two
larynges may correspond to the cylinder and two
valves of an air pump in pneumatic experiments, and
the glass globe or dome .would correspond to the

lungs and air cavities in the body of the bird. The
modus operandi may take effect by contraction of the-
length of the intervening trachea down towards the
lower larynx, then closure of the upper larynx,
followed by elongation of tube upwards towards the
head. The intervening column of air inside it would;
then be lengthened and attenuated, and the lower
larynx would then be closed, so as to preserve the
attenuation in the lungs and cavities from the external
air. The upper larynx would then be opened and the
air let in, and the contraction of the trachea would
again take place, and the action of attenuation of air
as before repeated up and down. If these efforts-
were renewed so many times in a second, with
intervals for ordinary respiration, then an ascent to
one thousand feet would take place as rapidly as in
any balloon. In order to establish this procedure on
a scientific basis it would be requisite to take the
weight of a certain bird at the level of the earth, and
at a height of one thousand feet ; or instead to ex-
haust the air out of the lungs to the extent of one
inch of the barometer, and weigh it again, and also
to ascertain the weight of the air in the body of the
bird and its volume, at the level of the earth, and at
a height of one thousand feet, or a reduction of one
inch of mercury. The rapid descent of the bird would
be effected by reversing the above process of air pump
exhaustion, and converting the trachea and its double
larynges into a force pump, so as to fill the lungs and
cavities with air of a greater density. The buoyancy
of the bird might then be made out for flotation in its
medium, in a like manner as is done for torpedoes,
diving-bells, balloons, &c., and the modus operandi
of towering rendered more clear of comprehension. —
" O/'server."

BOTANY.

The Flora of Kent. — Seeing your questions on
the Flora of Kent in this month's Science-Gossip,
I thought I would write and tell you that, having,
read and come across any amount of books in science,
natural history, &c., I do not remember ever having
seen a Flora of Kent. The nearest I know of is the
"Flora of Middlesex, with Map of Botanical Dis-
trict," by II. Trimen, 12s. 6d., published by \V. H.
Allen, 13, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, London, S.W.
If you have a copy of G. P. Bevan's "Kent," 2s.
(Stanford's "Tourist Guide Series," published by
Stanford & Co., 55, Charing Cross, London, S.W.),
you will most , probably find, either at the very
beginning or very end of the book, the topography,
history, biography, archeology, geology, mineralogy,
fauna and flora, botany, mining, manufactures, and
agriculture of the county. At the end of the intro-
duction the author gives a list of the best books on
the county, including botany, geologj', &c. You
may hear of a Kentish Flora in this way. N.B. —

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

91

This is what R. N. Worth docs in his "Guide to
.'S. Devon," same series as "Kent," published by
Stanford & Co. ; they are very good practical guides.
I do not know whether the London Flora would
include Kent ; I should think it would embrace the
borderland. You may find the following useful : —
Eentham's "Flora," revised by J. D. Hooker, last
edition, 18S7, \Os. 6d. ; Crespigny (C. de E.), "A
New London Flora," 1S77, 5^-. I do not know of a
later edition of this, nor do I knoM' publishers'
names. Any bookseller would order them, or you
could get them cheaper by writing to Mr. W.
Collins, Scientific Bookseller, 157, Great Portland
Street, London, W., or to Mr. W. Wesley, Scientific
Bookseller, 28, Essex Street, Strand, London, W.C.,
both of whom I can recommend; Hooker (J. D.),
■" Student's Flora of British Isles," Macmillan & Co.,
London, 105. 6d, A revised edition of the above
was, I believe, published about 1887. — F. Leigh.

The Variations of Colours in Plants. — It
inay be interesting to readers of Science-Gossip to
give a few instances of variation in colour of the
same species of plants which have come under my
notice. Some flowers are more various in colour
than others. For instance, the common wild gera-
nium may be found of a dark red, and light red of
^'arious shades, and is sometimes so pale as to appear
almost white. The purple orchis of our meadows
are of a very dark purple, others of a lighter hue,
and some of a very pale red colour, while others may
be found of a pure white colour. The flowers
amongst which we find most examples are those of a
blue, red, and purple colour. Among blue flowers
I have noticed the following variations in colour.
The selfheal is generally of a dark blue colour, but
many flowers are lilac, though some may very often
be found of a pure white ; and the sweet violet and
milkwort may often be seen of a blue, red, and
white colour, and now and again a white specimen
of the pretty little harebell may be gathered, but the
•colour is not a common one among them. We have
more instances of variation in red and purple flowers
than in any other colour, and I think I shall not be
.far wrong in stating that there are more examples in
the two mentioned colours than in all others put
together. The red campion, which is dark red,
may be found of a very pale red colour, or almost
•white. The common knapweed changes in colour,
and may sometimes be found white, while red clover
may be seen of similar colours. Rest harrow is as
•various in the red colour as those just named, and is
frequently white. The scarlet poppy and scarlet
pimpernel, two flowers of our cornfields, though of
so dark a colour, are often light red or even pink.
The little field madder and field knautia may be
found of various red colours, while white specimens
■of the purple foxglove and heather are of common
occurrence. The lesser convolvulus is white and

rose colour, the wood anemone is sometimes rose-
coloured, and the common yarrow is occasionally
red, while the common daisy of our meadows is often
fringed with red. The pretty yellow flowers of the
bird's-foot trefoil have often a mixture of red, and
some are entirely red, while the wild pansy of our
cornfields may be found of various colours. — H. G.
Ward.

CuLORorHYLL AXD LiGHT.— At least a brace of
topics have been recently discussed in Science-Gossip
that challenge a more than passing comment. One
is the formation of chlorophyll in plants. It seems to
be allowed by all the big botanical authorities that
there are exceptions to the law that light is an indis-
pensable condition for its formation. The germina-
ting seeds of many coniferas, and the fronds of ferns,
for example, become green even in absolute darkness
when the temperature is sufficiently high, and a bright
green moss has been fished up out of the Lake of
Geneva from a depth of two hundred feet. But let
us take care that there be no mistake here. Are we
quite sure that in every instance where a suit of green
is worn by a plant fabric that the colour is due to
chlorophyll ? If we have got any decent sort of eye
for colour at all, and endeavour to match the tint of
a green gooseberry, for instance, with that of a beech
leaf, shall we be satisfied ? I fancy not ; and where-
fore ? Simply because the colouring matter in the
one case is not the same as that in the other. By
personal experiment, I have become convinced that
green elderberries and even the seed cases of the
sycamore contain no chlorophyll ; and I suspect that
the green cotyledons found inside the melons and
likewise that of the lemon, recorded in this journal,
contain none either. But how can you tell that ?
what do you know about it ? Well, I must appeal to
the evidence of that most scientific of all instruments,
viz., the spectroscope. An alcoholic solution of the
substance in question, a small spectro, the use of an
eye and a little brains, and the trick is done, the
matter is decided. By reference to a back number of
SciENCE-GossiP we learn that a very thin layer of
chlorophyll is sufficient to absorb all the orange, blue,
and violet rays contained in the incident light ; hence
the spectrum ought to show very decided dark absorp-
tion bands in the portions thereof occupied by these
rays respectively when white light is transmitted
through a prism. When, therefore, an alcoholic
tincture of, say, grass leaves is presented to the slit
of the spectroscope, a very dark, broad, clearly out-
lined band is seen in the orange next the red, and the
whole of the blue-violet portion is blotted out ;
sometimes two or three other fainter bands are also
seen in the yellow and the green, but these are not
characteristic as the former are. So far as I am
aware, there is no distinctive chemical test for
chlorophyll ; as it is highly probable that it is not
invariably of the same chemical composition, nor is

92

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

it in every case evolved from precisely the same
organic constituents in the plant. The physical test
now indicated is the only reliable means of detecting
its presence ; and therefore any solution not yielding
the absorption spectrum aforesaid cannot be said to
contain chlorophyll. This comment raises a further
suggestion as follows. On reading the illustrations
of vegetable teratology, so tastefully exhibited by the
editor in last year's volume, many examples may be
noted where sepals, petals, and other floral parts have
been converted into green leaves or green foliar
organs, or vice versa. The quandary here is to de-
finitely settle the highly interesting and important
problem whether these verdant appearances are really
due to chlorophyll or not. It is obvious that a
decisive solution either one way or the other would
tend to eminently fortify or to seriously undermine
the famous " Gothic " conception that floral organs
(sepals, petals, stamens, &c.) are developed, or are
modifications of foliar organs. Any vegetable out-
growth whatever, though it be as green as the emerald,
and present a foliar aspect and structure, cannot, if
destitute of chlorophyll, be regarded as a leaf in any
functional sense of the term. — P. Q. Keegcin.

Note on Scolopendrium vulgare, var.
LoBATUM, AND ITS ALLIES. — During a recent walk
{5th March) from Aust, Gloucester to Bristol, I
found the roadsides, owing to the absence of other
vegetation, very favourable to the observation of ferns.
In sheltered places, notwithstanding the severity of
the past winter, I noticed some fine specimens, chiefly
of the common hart's-tongue, as green as at mid-
summer. The majority showed, by their semi-withered
state, the advanced time of year ; but, as a whole, I
should be inclined to think that the excessive and
long- continued cold has not unfavourably affected
them. I was fortunate in finding two or three good,
and, I hope, constant varieties, which I have yet to
name or get named, and a very large number of
specimens of the variety above mentioned. In look-
ing at Swayne's old work on the Botany of the neigh-
bourhood, I find but a single variety recorded, and
that from the neighbourhood of Ashton ; but, of course,
vei7 much more must be known since the date of the
publication of that book ; but I regret that I am
unable to refer your readers to these sources of infor-
mation. The Botanical Secretary of the Bristol
Naturalists' Society is editing in its Proceedings a very
valuable record of the local flora ; but I expect that
the cryptograms have not as yet been dealt with.
The variety Lobatum may be looked upon as occupy-
ing a middle place between the simply bifurcated
fronds and those which are much dissected and
tasselled ; all of them are undoubtedly related, and
very inconstant, especially when transplanted, revert-
ing almost invariably to the specific form. This fact
has always been known to collectors and growers of
British ferns. Ferns gathered with dormant fronds

in spring burst during the same season. In the
natural state the amount of variation on the same
plant is very great, extending from a simple tendency
to bifurcate at the growing point of the midrib, and
hardly visible on the margin, to a distinct separation
of the fronds on a common stipe, a simple form of
pinnation. This is the most notable case that has
come under my own observation ; but I have not as
yet observed a sufficient number of plants to be able
to say much as to the amount of variation in fronds
growing from a single crown. Varieties, when they
occur in nature, I find often occur together, and some-
times it requires a careful examination, by digging up
the roots, before the fronds can be relegated to the
crowns that support them. Although this variety,
Lobatum, and its bifurcated and tasselled allies is
generally distributed over the neighbourhood of
Bristol, it can hardly be said to be common, except in
a few favoured localities. Indeed, I have travelled
long distances along our Somersetshire and Gloucester-
shire lanes without observing a single specimen.
.Speaking generally, I fancy they are rather more
frequent in sheltered situations near the coast ; but
in returning from Aust to Bristol on the date
mentioned, I observed so many that I thought the
fact deserving of mention. In a lane running east
and west on Keuper soil, near Aust, 90 yards long^
with high banks, well shaded by hedges and elms, I
counted no fewer than 117 separate plants, varying
from simple bifurcation to strong cresting at the
opposite extreme, the majority belonging to the inter-
mediate variety Lobatum. These were nearly all
strong, growing, handsome plant clusters, which, if
divided, would double or treble the above mentioned
number. Of the total number of Scolopendrium
plants, normal and abnormal, I should think, at a rough
estimate, that the bifurcate and crested kinds must
number probably a third. Both sides of the lane are
sheltered and shaded by trees, but naturally the south
side more than the other. Of the 117, 40 grew on
the side facing the sun, and 77 on the other, a
difference of nearly a half, and this difference would be
true for the normal forms also. In the close vicinity,
but on the sides of the main road, I observed several
plants of the same variety. Proportionally, however,
they were much scarcer. Both localities have a
southern exposure. — T. Stock.

GEOLOGY, &c.

Anniversary Address of the President of
THE Geological Society.— Dr. A Geikie delivered
the above address on February 20th. He dealt with
the history of volcanic action in Britain during the
earlier ages of geological time. He proposed to confine
the term "Archaean" to the most ancient gneisses
and their accompaniments, and showed that these
rocks, so far as we know them in this country, are

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

essentially of eruptive origin, though no trace has
yet been found of the original discharge of any
portion of them at the surface. Passing to the
younger crystalline schists, which he classes under
the term " Dalradian," he pointed to the evidence of
included volcanic products in them throughout the
Central Highlands of Scotland and the North of
Ireland. The Uriconian series of Dr. Callaway he
regarded as a volcanic group, probably much older
than the recognised fossiliferous Cambrian rocks of
this country. The Cambrian system he showed to
be eminently marked by contemporaneous volcanic
materials ; and he discussed, at some length, the so-
called pre-Cambrian rocks of North Wales. He
reviewed the successive phases of eruptivity during
the Arenig and Bala periods, and described the
extraordinary group of volcanoes in northern
Anglesey during the latter time. The volcanoes of
the Lake District were next treated of, and reference
was made to the recent discovery by the Geological
Survey that an important volcanic group underlies
most of the visible Lower Silurian rocks in the South
of Scotland. The last portion of the address was
devoted to an account of the volcanoes of Silurian
time in Ireland, and it was shown that during the
Bala period a chain of submarine volcanic vents
existed along the east of Ireland from county Down
to beyond the shores of Waterford ; while in Upper-
Silurian time there were at least tv.-o active centres of
eruption in the extreme west of Kerry and in Mayo.

Fossil Fish in Lower Silurian Rocks. — A
remarkable discovery is announced from America.
The enormous number of fishes which so suddenly
make their appearance in the Old Red Sandstone or
Devonian, have always staggered evolutionists. The
only reply was " the imperfection of the geological
record" — the failure to come upon the rocks con-
taining those experiments of nature which would
supply the missing links. These, however, have now
teen discovered in western America. In the Lower
Silurian sandstones near Canon City, Colorado, there
bave been found hosts of tishes of a lower type than
those in the Upper Silurian or Devonian. They are
also the oldest backboned animals as yet known, and
indicate that when the still more ancient Cambrian is
fully investigated transition between the vertebrate
and the invertebrate groups may be unearthed.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Fungus Growth on Eggs. — Can any reader of
Science-Gossip suggest a remedy for a fungus that
has got into my collection of eggs. It can be rubbed
easily off coloured eggs, but leaves a dark mark on
white eggs. The collection is kept in a thoroughly
dry room, in drawers, covered with glass. All the
specimens of my own collecting were well washed out.
What can have caused the fungus ? I intend putting
■ carbolic acid in each drawer to keep off moths.

Will that have any effect in checking the fungus ?
I am told that carbolic acid is preferable to camphor,
as the latter tends to produce dampness. Will
the common brown acid do, or must it be the refined
kind that is used ? — T. Brown.

Local Conchological Society. — Being anxious
to discover if there are any Conchologists in Exeter
and neighbourhood who would join myself and friends
here in establishing a local society, I should feel
grateful if you would kindly allow me a few lines in
your much read and widely circulated magazine for
that purpose. Collectors in this part of England
labour under disadvantages unknown to those living
in the more favoured north. Every little piece of
knowledge has to be painfully acquired. There are
no well-known specialists to apply to ; no museums
with good local collections to which we can refer
when difficulties arise. A walk through the Exeter
Museum quickly shows how little general interest is
taken in Conchology and Entomology in this county.
There is certainly an attempt at a local collection of
land and fresh-water shells, but to my knowledge
it has not been added to, or re-arranged for years,
and several of even the commoner local forms are
misrepresented. A few persons interested in the
science, who would co-operate and meet together
from time to time for mutual encouragement and
instruction, would undoubtedly very soon succeed in
rendering this a less "dark" district, and if
thoroughly worked I am very sure it would soon
prove itself a very rich one, as with but i&v! oppor-
tunities for collecting I have already found several
species not in the county list. — L. y, S., Topshavi,
S. Devon.

The Great Yarmouth Natural History
Society held their annual meeting at the Free Library
on Tuesday evening, January 27th. The Secretary
read the annual report which showed the Society
was financially better than last year. Notes were
read on the black-headed gull, and long-eared bat,
a living specimen of which was exhibited. Letters
from the President, Sir James Paget, Rev. M. C. H.
Bird, and Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, with which the
latter gentleman enclosed a copy of his " Lepidop-
tera of Suftblk," and " Moss Flora, and Hepaticae," of
the same county. The papers read at the ordinary
meetings were as follows : " Bird Mortality," " The
Little Gull," "The Sole," "The Great Sirex,"
"Skulls of Birds," "Microscopic Fungi," "The
Black Rat," "Bees and Bee-keeping," "Five-
bearded Rockling," " Fifteen-spined Stickleback,"
" The great Water Beetle," &c.

Cuckoo's Egg in a Greenfinch's Nest. — It
is not, I think, a very frequent occurrence to find a
cuckoo's egg in the nest of a hard-billed bird, being
mostly found in the nest of the hedge-sparrow, and in
the nest of other warblers. It may be interesting to
some to know that a cuckoo's egg was discovered
here in the spring of 1887 in a greenfinch's nest, which
contained four. eggs of the greenfinch. — //. G. Ward,
North Mars ton.

The following interesting occurrence, which was
told to my cousin, who -related it to me, may perhaps
be interesting to readers of Science-Gossip. In a
hedgerow around this village a blackbird built its
nest last winter and laid five eggs, which were
eventually hatched, and the young ones fiew away.
The young man who knew the nest, used, it seems, to
visit it occasionally to see how the young ones were
getting on. In one of his" visits he found that the
young ones had flown, and was greatly surprised to

94

HARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

find three more eggs laid in the old nest. I should
be pleased if readers woukl record any similar
instance which might have come under their notice.
— H. G. Ward, North Mars/oit.

The Two Sides of the Medal. — Mrs.
Bodington, in a not altogether novel parable, urges
us to look on both sides of the medal, but gives little
evidence of viewing more than one side of it herself.
She is apparently more a follower of Spencer than of
Darwin, but while she twits Wallace for not being
abreast of the march of science, she herself clings to
some of the most doubtful of Darwin's assumptions.
Of Wallace, she writes : " He believes in natural
selection pure and simple, with its odd theory of
constant variations occurring without any reason, and
owing their origin to nothing in particular." Well,
to what do these variations owe their origin in Mrs.
Bodington's opinion? They are due to the " law of
the action of the environment upon irritable proto-
plasms " — an explana'tion highly abstract and more
metaphysical than biological. True, probably, as far
as it goes, but not going very closely to the point.
Now, Wallace, without thinking it worth while to
give this account of the origin of variations, has
placed the theory of natural selection on a much
stronger basis than that on which Darwin built it.
Wallace has shown that variations are, as a matter of
fact, numerous in all directions. While every
organism has a normal or average form and size for
all its parts, both internal and external, yet no
individual exactly hits this average, but all vary, in
all their parts more or less, from the average form
and size. For instance, suppose a bird has a wing
of a certain length, and it would be to its advantage
to have a somewhat longer wing. , Now about half
the individuals of the species must always have a
little more than the average length of wing, while
the other half have a little less than the average.
The former will tend to prosper and propagate their
kind, while the latter will decrease. The process
begins at once. There is no waiting for fortuitous
variation, as Darwin thought. Now, as for the
transmission of acquired characters, when we find
two men so widely apart in their general views as
Wallace and Weissman unite in repudiating that
doctrine, we must at least believe that a great deal
can be said against it,. and that the question cannot
be settled so simply as Mrs. Bodington imagines.
From the off-hand way in which she settles the
matter, it is evident indeed that she does not clearly
understand the question at all. She confounds the
doctrine of inheritance of acquired characters with
heredity in general. She strangely quotes the trans-
mission of the peculiarity of supernumerary fingers as
the transmission of an acquired character. She also
refers to the transmission to offspring of phthisis and
insanity ; but the whole question hinges upon
whether these disorders were acquired or congenital.
As a great authority stated recently, the actual
evidence in favour of the transmission of characters
really acquired in the individual's lifetime amounts
only to a few scattered anecdotes. I will only say in
conclusion that Professor Weissman's theory of the
continuity of the germ plasma is far from being as
baseless in fact as Mrs. Bodington supposes. In
numerous cases it is demonstrable that the repro-
ductive cells or tlie rudiments of sexual organs are
set apart at an early stage, in the development of the
embryo. " They thus include some of the original
capital of the fertilised parent ovum intact, they
continue the protoplasmic tradition unaltered,
and when liberated in * turn they naturally enough
develop as the parent ovum did." Preconceived

theories may sometimes blind men to facts ; but a
scientist of the calibre of Professor Weissman does
not adopt his theories without some foundation in
fact. The transmission of acquired characters is Ijy
no means essential to Darwinism. The essence of
Darwinism is the principle of natural selection, and
this must stand as a vera causa, and as one prime
factor in the process of evolution, whatever the other
factors may ultimately be proved to be. — J. IF.
Baylis, 56, Vine Street, Liverpool.

CoLoaRS OF Eggs. — It is a curious fact that, while
we have more or less plausible reasons by which we
account for the varied colours of birds, beasts,
insects, and flowers, we seem to have no clue what-
ever to the reason for the equally beautiful and
wonderfully-varied tints of birds' eggs. It is true,
certain generalisations have been attempted. The
basis of many of these is that the colours bear some
relation to the environment, a protective function
being assigned to them. M. Gloger, a German
naturalist, many years ago followed this fancy to a
considerable extent, and it is frequently still pro^
pounded in popular articles in various journals.
According to these theorists, eggs are divisible intO'
two classes : self-coloured, and spotted. Simple
whites, blues, greens, and yellows, are considered to
be most conspicuous, and therefore most dangerous,
and these are said to be therefore hidden in hollows
or covered nests ; the colours of speckled eggs are
supposed to blend with the shades of surrounding
objects, or with the lining material of the nest. Of
course these theories have no foundation in fact, and
in every case the exceptions are as numerous as the
examples adduced. Any schoolboy who has gone
bird-nesting could produce abundant evidence
to refute these notions of cabinet theorists. Dr..
Darwin ascribed the colours of eggs to the objects
amongst which the mother-bird lives, acting upon
the shell through the medium of the eye. Others
have surmised that there may be some relation
between the colour of the plumage and that of the
eggs. Perhaps the plumage of our domestic fowls
varies more than that of any other birds, yet they lay
simple white or yellowish eggs, singularly unliable to
vary. Chemists have recently brought their science
to bear on the subject, and their investigations have
led, I believe, to the discovery of two new com-
pounds in the pigment of the egg of the emu, these
were detected by means of the spectroscope.
Abnormal varieties of eggs are worth recording ; and
I notice, with pleasure, that several of your readers
are acting in accord with Mr. Nunn's suggestion,
and forwarding to you reports of such variations as
they have met with. As in botany, so in this depart-
ment, what were once called monstrosities may act
as guides to the past history of the species, and some
clue may be found which will enable us to unravel
what is at present an inscrutable mystery in zoology.
In my own experience I have met with some
interesting varieties. White forms of normally
deeper-tinted or spotted eggs are by no means rare.
The robin often lays a pure white egg in a clutch of
normal ones, and in two instances I have met with
the entire clutch pure white ; the guillemot very
frequently lays eggs almost devoid of spots, but
absolutely spotless specimens, although they do
occur, are rare. Other white varieties I have met
are those of the sparrow-hawk, greenfinch, canary,
jackdaw, linnet, house-sparrow, and wren. But the
most interesting case in this direction was a clutch of
eggs of the red grouse, these were all pure white
except one, which was slightly clouded with the
faintest approach to coloration. Normally-spotted

HARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

95

■eggs frequently occur without markings, as in the
song-thrush and many others (including in one case
the rook). On the other hand, self-coloured eggs
but rarely become accidentally maculated. I have
seen eggs of the domestic fowl slightly spotted, and
one particular hen during the whole of her laying
career, produced somewhat heavily-dappled eggs,
approaching in colour to those of the turkey. Eggs
of the stonechat and whinchat seem to have dotted
and undotted eggs with almost equal frequency, so
that neither can be called decidedly the normal state.
A pair of dark chestnut-mottled eggs of the green
woodpecker were taken near Kipling, in Yorkshire,
in i8Si. These were exceedingly richly-coloured.
Variations in the ground colours of eggs are less
frequent than those of the markings. White jack-
daw eggs with black markings are frequent in
Cleveland, and are very handsome when heavily-
spotted. The partridge-egg, with the small end
green, described by Mr. Hewitt, and which I have
seen, is a very remarkable freak. The markings
themselves of eggs perhaps afford the most examples
of aberration from the normal, but of these I cannot
now treat, but will try to describe a few I- have met
with in a future note. — J. A. IVkeldon, 32, Langham
Street, Askton -under- Lyite,

Batrachomyomachia. — So far as I know,
before the days of Homer, no battle between frogs
and mice and rats has been recorded. The blind
bard gives us the origin of the famous contest he
describes ; but those which I am about to relate
appear to have been brought about in a difterent
manner. Some little time ago a friend living at
Comptom, Sussex, witnessed a singular spectacle ;
in this case toads instead of frogs had fallen victims
in an engagement. A legion of rats had assailed a
small army of toads and rent them limb from limb,
as their mutilated carcases testified. They did not
appear to have devoured many of the toads.
Perhaps, having tasted them, they did not like them.
Last week a strange combat took place at Chichester,
of which I extract the following account from the
"West Sussex Gazette": A rat and a frog were
found near the stables of Dr. Buckell, East Pallant,
having met their death in mortal duel. The rat had
seized the frog's head, and its teeth protruded
through the eye ; the frog had also taken a firm grip
of its opponent. Both declining to release their hold,
or perhaps being unable to do so : they had probably
died of starvation. This strange couple are to be
[ireserved for the Chichester Museum. What could
have caused this quarrel ? The rat was of Hanoverian
or German extraction, and the frog possibly of
French origin, which would at once account for it ;
but, as there is no evidence as to the latter, perhaps a
different reason may be assigned. Does any
correspondent know of similar battles recently ? —
J^. H. Arnold.

Mounting Shells. — I have collected shells for
some years, and have used gelatine (that sold at the
confectioners in pellets) to fasten them on card
tablets, melting it like glue in a vapour bath, but on
floating isome of the shells off I find a mark where
the gelatine has been, and am afraid it injures the
shells. Can any reader advise me on the matter ? —
Mary Priest.

Heredity. — In the great discussion now going on
as to whether any modifications acquired during the
life of the parent are transmitted to the offspring, can
any one give any information as to the size of feet
of Chinese babies, after fashion for centuries has
crushed in the feet of the mothers ? Darwin, I think.

mentions the peculiar canter of Shetland ponies as
being due to the boggy nature of the ground across
which they run wild so long. At a loan exhibition
held here, I was amazed at the small size of a pair of
Chinese women's shoes exhibited. They were more
like shoes for a six-months'-old baby in this country,
or for a doll, than for any adult. — J. Shaw.

Rat Stories. — The following stories of rats were
communicated to me by a person living at Cushen-
dall, CO. Antrim. A farmer living near the village
had a cask full of pickle for curing meat. This cask
was placed near a shelf on which was a dish where
three large crabs had been placed ; one of them was
boiled, the other two were alive. A rat prowling
for food smelt the cooked fish, and had just com-
menced his meal when one of the crabs seized him
by one of the forelegs and held such a grip that both
tumbled over into the pickle. The farmer coming
next day to get the crabs, wondered extremely what
had become of one of them, and thought it was
stolen, and after searching about discovered it and
the rat at the bottom of the cask, the crab still
holding on firmly. Both were drowned. Another
rat was observed by a farmer in the month of April,
when rats leave the rick-yards for the fields, to
be assisted on his journey by two rats, one on each
side, supporting him by a stick which the maimed
rat held in his mouth. This rat had evidently been
caught in a trap, as both his forelegs were broken.
This, I think, shows reasoning. — S. A. Brenan.

Classificatory Position of the Mollusca. —
Can anybody state, as succinctly as possible, the
precise reasons why the iNIollusca have been placed
in a higher position in the scheme of animal classi-
fication than the Annulosa ? — P. Q. K,

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish ScjENCE-Gossip earlier than formerl}', we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others.— We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers aie
simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken ai o\ir gratuitous
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

_We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To OUR Recent Exchangers. — We are willing and helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

Uva Ursi. — Write to the secretaries of the Chemical Society,
and also to the secretary of the Institute of Chemistry, for
rules of admission.

W. F. — You will find "The Journal of Microscopy and
Natural Science," published at (>d. monthly (London : Baillicre,
Tyndall & Co.), very useful. "The Microscope" (an American
Journal), may be had of Mr. W. P. Collins, 157 Great Portland
Street, London, W.

S. J. Bedac— Write to Mr. W. J. Cain, Hon. Sec. Isle of
Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, Woodburn
Square, Douglas, for information respecting the lepidoptera of
the island.

W. D. R. — We hope to print your list of Aberdeen shells
shortly.

96

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSJP.

T. R. J.— The green variety of /^/»<or-j/rtr is seldom if ever
found in Derbyshire. It is met with in fine, large cubic
crybtnls (truncated) in and about Alston INIoor, Cumberland.
The miners there generally have a collection of it.

K. D. — Climbing plants do not nece:,sarily all turn the same
way — so as " to face the sun." Lapageria is not an exceptional
instance of plants " turning the same way as the sun," although
most climbing plants are right-handed, such as fcarlet runners
and convolvuluses ; others, like the hop, are left-handed.

O. C. — It is not uncommon to find wild snowdrops in the
state of those you sent.

E. W. S., AND OTHERS. — You can procure Veri ill's "List of
British Diptera," by addressing the author at Newmarket.

We have received No. 107 of Messrs. Wesley & Son's
"Natural History and Scientific Book Circular," Part 2,
devoted to botany. We shall esteem it a favour if our corre-
spondents will write with ink instead of lead -pencil.

J. K. NowERS.— Send the paper you mention, and we will
do our best with it.

I\I. B. Davies. — If you will forward the specimen of amber
to the publishers of Science-Gossii', we will endeavour to find
the kind of insect imbedded in it.

J. H. Ellis. — Get the "Saturday Afternoon Holiday Guide
near London," price 6d. It will give jou localities for
fossils, &c.

EXCHANGES.
Wanted, correctly-named hymenoptera and diptera. Good
return in land and freshwater shells. — J. W. Williams, 57
Corinne Road, Tufnell Park, N.

I'alvata cristata and Ancylus lacnstris wanted. Also ex-
changes v/ith those who ha\e good collections of the band
variations of H. 7iemoralis and H. hortensis. — Rev. J. W.
Horsley, Woolwich.

Offered, Xylophaga dorsalis, and pholas with siphons.
Wanted, Pecten tigrunts, Striatits testa: and septetnradiatus,
Lima cUiptica, stthauriculata and loscoinbii, Mcuiiolnrta
7iigra and jiiay-moraia, Crenella decussata, Lepton jiitidmn,
Liicina spirt/era, Isocardia cor., Axiniis /crriiginosa, Astarie
triangularis, Psamohia telliiieUa and costulata, Lyonsia
Norvegica, Panopea plicata, Bttccinum Hiimphreysiamuii,
&c. — J. Smith, Monkredding, Kilwinning.

Wanted, L. C, 8th ed. : 11, 114, 848, 855-858, 861, 862,
867, 870, 9S3, 1253 and var., 1350, 1596/', 1598^, 1604, i8o3, &c.,
in good specimens (British only). Will give in exchange 76c,
116, I47£-, i92/>, 4211^, 423, 915 fol., 539^1, 541/', 541C. 54^ 549.
572, 924, 1310, i666, 1675, &c. — A. E. Lomax, 56 Vauxhall
Road, Liverpool.

Nos. 49-63 (January, 1869, to March, 1&70), and Nos. 180-
253 (December, iSSo, to January, 1886) of Science-Gossip in
exchange for micro apparatus. Side reflector wanted. — A.
Johnston, 184 Slatefield Street, Glasgow.

Australian eocene fossils. A fine collection offered for
other fossils. — J. T. Mulder, Moorabool Hotel, Geelong,
Victoria, Australia.

Will any geologist having a knowledge of any accessible
fossiliferous geological sections near London, kindly communi-
cate with J. H. Ellis, I Pomona Place, Fulham, S.W. ?

Named and unnamed fossils (good assortment) given in
exchange for foreign stamps. Old issues required. — A. Tarver,
34 Croydon Grove, Croydon.

Wanted, Smith's " Diatoms," and Lindsay's " British
Lichens." State requirements to — J. Larder, fiercer Row,
Louth, Lines.

Wanted, British land and freshwater shells, or any fossils
from any formation not in collection, with names and wheie
found, in exchange for Pholas Candida, or pressed British
flowers. Address — R. D. Laurie, 19 Willow Bank Road,
Birkenhead.

Fifty foreign postage stamps, all different, in exchange for
eight different foreign coins. — Stampus, 24 Sidney Grove, New-
castle-on-Tyne.

Wanted, someone who would be kind enough to name a
collection of shells (gratis) if sent few at a time. Would be
welcome to duplicates. — Edward Buckell, Romsey.

Science-Gossip for 1887-89, unbound. Wanted, old collec-
tion of postage stamps for whole or portion. — D. Thomson,
81 Kyverdale Road, Stoke Newington, London.

New Zealand shells wanted to exchange for shells of other
countries, Correspondence invited. Address — G. W. Wright,
Karanaghope Road, Auckland, New Zealand.

Wanted, foreign shells and good unmounted micro material.
Exchange British shells and choice micro slides of every
description. Foreign correspondence invited. — R. Suter,
5 Highweek Road, Tottenham, London.

British reptiles and batrachians. Wanted, perfect adult
living or spirit specimens, in exchange for correctly-named
foreign species, or other objects. — G. E. M., 5 Warwick Place
West, London, S.W.

"Royal Microscopical Journal" for 1887 and 1888, 2 vols.,
bound, and four parts, February to August, 1889 ; also " The
Microscope." by H. Baker (069). What oflers?— F. C,
53 Brooke Road, Stoke Newington, N.

Davis's " Biology," Gibson's ditto, Marshall and Hurst's

" Zoology," Lloyd Morgan's ditto. Bower's " Botany," Parts r
and 2, Huxley's "Biology," &c., in exchange for good
standard works on geology, or a good labelled collection of
nn'nerals, rocks, &c., to illustrate lectures on physiography.

I ift'ers to— A. E. Salter, Royal Masonic Schools, Wood
Green, N.

Science-Gossip (unbound), 1S89 and 1890, complete, 8 num-
bers for 1880, and lo odd numbers, for exchange. Wanted,
tran'-parent moUuscan micro-slides, or ofl'ers. — J. B. Beckett,

II Lancaster Road, Great Yarmouth.

Offered, PJiolas Candida (perfect living shells). Wanted,,
the rarer species of British land and freshwater shells, also
good marine species. — P. R. Shaw, 48 Bidston Road, Oxton,.
Birkenhead.

" Ibis," bound half-calf, for 1881, "Supernatural in Nature"
(Reynolds), perfectly clean and good as new, in exchange for
eggs, or natural history works especially relating to Derby-
shire.— Miskin, Steam Brewery, Bedford.

Spirilla Peronii, Waldheimia jJai'escens, Trigonia La-
ina7-ckii, lanthina ejcigiia, and other good shells. Wanted,
good foreign or British land and freshwater shells. — Robert
Cairns, 159 Queen Street, Hurst, Ashton-under-Lyne.

"Vegetable Substances," 3 vols. "Lib. Ent. Knowledge,"
in exchange for text-book on Practical Botany. Also wanted
modern work on marine algae. J. F. Neeve, 68 High Street,.
Deal.

Offered, Cypma helvola, C. anmdns, C. lynx, Oliva
isfridiila, O. freniulina, O. reticularis. Wanted, Nassa
iniDiersa, N. gemniidata, N. papulosa. — W. Jones, jun.,
27 Mayton Street, Holloway, London, N.

" Popular Science Review," 1887 and i883,in i vol., "Geo-
logical Survey, Canada, Report for 1853-1856," i vol. Offers
wanted. — J. A. Floyd, 5 Hospital Road, Bury St. Edmunds.

Foreign stamps wanted. Will give British shells in return.
— T. E. Sclater, Bank Street, Teit;nniouth.

Offered, birds' and animals' skins, birds' eggs, shells,
photographic camera and apparatus, &c., in exchange for
foreign stamps. — H. Knights, Beaconsfield Road, Great Yar-
mouth.

Lima hians, L. Loscombii, L. Sarsii, L. clliptica, Modio-
laria costulata, Crenella 7-hombca, Area obliqna, Axinus
crouliticnsis, Ainpidesiiia casta7ieuj7i, Tellina balaustina,
Panopea plicata. Teredo Norvegica, T. pedicillata, Trochus
amabilis, T. Dumingii, T. occidentalis, Rissoa Jeff>-eysii,
Jeffreysia diaphana, Cerithiofisis tncta.xa, Kidinia steno-
stoma, Odostomia decnssata, O. conspicua, and Styli/erttirtom
wanted. Other rare British shells given in exchange. —
A. J. R. Sclater, 23 Bank Street, Teignmouth, South Devon.

Photographic sets. One i-plate set, one slide, lens and
tripod complete ; a i-plate set by Lancaster, two double slides,
&c. , all complete, in real good order. I will exchange for
appliances or books on microscopy, biology, brewing, &c. —
Apply — Horton, Brayford, Lincoln.

BOOKS. ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.

"An Introduction to the Study of Botany," by Dr. E.
Avellng (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.). — "Mineral'
Resources of the United States," vol. for 1888. — "Monograph
of the U. S. Geol. Survey — Lake Bonneville," by G. K.
Gilbert. — " Ninth Annual Report of the U. S. Survey for 1887-
88."—" Bulleiins of the U. S. Geol. Survey," Nos. 5S-60 (all
published at Government Printing Office, Washington). — "A
Class Book on Light," by R. E. Steel (London : Methuen &
Co.). — "The Foundations of Chemistry," by E. T. Dixon
(London: Geo. Bell & Sons). — "Insect Life," vol. iii. No. 5,
by C. V. Riley and L. O. Howard (Washington: Government
Printing Office). — "Report of Wellington College Nat. Science
Societv, 1890." — "Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society,"
February. — "Nature Notes." — "British Cage Birds," Part 11.
— "Le Diatomiste," No. 4. — "Journal and Proceedings Royal
Society of New South Wales."— "The Medical Annual, 1891."
— "American Microscopical Journal."— " The Microscope." —
"American Naturalist." — " Canadian Entomologist." — " The
Naturalist." — "The Botanical Gazette." — "The Gentleman's
Magazine."— "The Midland Naturalist."— " The Garner."—
"Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes," &c., &c.

Communications received up to the 13TH ult. from:
J. w. S.— W. J. S.— H. A. M.— T. A. L.— M. P.— H. E. G.
-S. A. B.-W. E. C.-J. E. W.-C. O.— W. J. B.— A. J. J.—
H. H. M.— C. B. M.— F. L.— E. B.-J. S.— C. P. G.—
J. W. W.— H. W. B.— W. D. R.— O. H.— M. W.— W. H.—
A. J.— E. B.— J. S.— F. W. F.— W. F.— J. B. B.— P. R. S.—
R. C— J. T. N.— W. J.— J. A. F.— H. K.— S. T. B.— T. S.—
G. E. S.— J. W. B.— A. G. T.— V. A. L.-G. A. H.—
A. J. R. S.— J. A.— W. A. G.— F. C— G. E. M.— R. S.—

D. T.— J. W. W.— G. W. W.— A. E. S.— O. C— G. W. N.—

E. A. M.— R. D. L.— R. H. J.— R. T.— A. E. L.— J. S —
J. T. M.— W. A. G.-J. L.— J. W. S.— A. T.— A. J.-J. A. E.
— W. A. T.-Dr. P. Q. K.— J. E. L.— W. E. C— T. S.—
J. W. H.— J. E. N.— M. B. D.— A. A.— H. P. G.— &c., &c.

(

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

97

A MARSH GARDEN.

OW that the happy
time for all bo-
tanists is coming
on, I think it may-
interest those who
have like myself a
special love for
bog-plants, to hear
of a successful ex-
periment made by
me for two suc-
cessive seasons.

I set up a minia-
ture marsh thus :
I took off with a
trowel, so as not
to disturb the
roots, some
patches of the bog
surface, containing
plants of the pin-
guicula, others with clusters of different sorts of
drosera, patches with masses of the tiny bog cam-
panula, also some young plants of the bog asphodel.
I packed my patches of bog tightly in a shallow seed-
pan and added to them Parnassia palicst7-is sent to me
from Scotland and filling up all the interstices with
growing bits of moss. I then placed my pan in one
sufficiently large to allow of two Inches between the
inner and outer pans on all sides. The holes of the
outer pan were carefully -plugged and filled with water
which oozed naturally up through the holes in the
bottom of the inside pan, and placed the whole upon
a sunny window-sill. The water drawn up by the
sun kept the contents not only soft and wet, but kept
a warm soft atmosphere about the plants, such as
they had in their native habitat. If any of your
readers ever put their face down close to a bog to
look closely at its exquisite vegetation on a warm
sunny day, they will understand the soft warm breath
the plants rejoice in.

The little marsh garden succeeded beyond my most

sanguine expectation, the plants never felt they had

been taken from their native land, but grew apace

and blossomed well, the pinguiculas threw up

No. 317.— May 1891.

their lovely purple-headed stems, the sundews sent
up numberless bunches of their little white flowers,
the campanulas were plentiful, and the Scotch par-
nassus flourished and blossomed as well as if it was
on its own mountains.

To my great delight I had several unexpected
ornaments to my marsh garden. A crop of pink
pimpernel made its appearance, and grew with such
speed and luxuriance that they had to be removed to
a flower-pot saucer, where they hung over the edge
after a very short time in beautiful pink wreaths.
Next, a small marsh hypericum came to light and
embellished my marsh with its small trails of yellow
flowers and red buds. Then a small green flower
surprised me one morning by making its appearance
in the centre of a patch of spear-shaped leaves that I
had supposed to be some sort of grass, a small deep
cup-shaped blossom, its corolla five-cleft with a
stamen in the curved centre of each division, and a
shinmg moist spot in the heart of the cup instead of
a pistil. The number of small mosses was most
interesting, some of them of exquisite beauty ; they
came and went in a constant succession during the
early spring^March and April — but there was always
some curious plant or other quite unknown to me
during the whole summer.

After a few months the water between the pans
became the home of numerous small water insects,,
and two sorts of water snails made their appearance.
For their benefit and shelter I put a plant of water-
cress in one corner of the water, which speedily threw
out roots and flourished, making a shelter for the
insects.

I kept the outer pan filled to about an inch under
the rim of the inner one, in hot weather it evaporated
very quickly, and I was careful to keep the water
even with the mark.

If any of your readers think of setting up a marsh
for themselves I am sure they will find it a source of
endless interest and pleasure.

Note. — The campanula mentioned above I was
unable to identify ; it was like C, hederacca, but
smaller, and the blossoms upright instead of
drooping.

I. G.

F

9S

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SI P.

THE STRUCTURE OF INSECTS IN RE-
LATION TO THE ORIGIN OF VERTE-
BRATES.

PROFESSOR B. T. LOWNE, F.R.C.S.,
recently delivered at the Royal College of
Surgeons three lectures on thel Structure and
Development of the Skeleton of the Head, the
Nervous System, and Sensory Organs of Insects in
relation to Recent Views on the Origin of Vertebrates,
giving the results of work in which he has been
engaged for at least fifteen or twenty years. 'His
views are that the vertebrate and the arthropod
stand in a genetic connection with each other. He
said : "If we seek for links uniting these two great
sub-kingdoms, we must look for them amongst the
most generalised groups in each : in the vertebrata
amongst the amphibia, and especially the perenni-
branchiate forms ; in the arthropods, and in the king-
crab "Limulus," which hold a zoological position
between the arachnids and the Crustacea." The
lecturer compared the embryos of the axolotl, as
figured by Professor Parker with arthropod embryos,
and showed many points of similarity. He then
/adverted to the fact that both Drs. Gaskell and
Patten had independently arrived at the conclu-
sion that the king crab stands in a genetic relation
to the vertebrata.

The existence of a notocliord in the chordata has
been looked upon as of jDrimary import in the
question of the descent of vertebrates from an in-
vertebrate type. Adopting, however, Gaskell's
views, and holding that the central canal of the
.spinal cord represents the arthropod alimentary canal,
the lecturer showed at some length that the procto-
deum of the insect embryo corresponds with the
mesenteron of the vertebrata ; and he held that a
notochord should rather be regarded as a secondary
character, resulting from an invagination of the
epiblast, than as a structure of a high morphological
significance ; and he showed that a rod of cartilage,
similar to a notochord, is actually developed on the
dorsal surface of the invaginated head capsule of the
b.lowfly larva, whilst those structures in invertebrates
which have been supposed to represent a notochord
■ have a similar origin. He pointed out that the
structure which supported the nerve centres in
Limulus, is composed of cartilage very like the
cartilage of the vertebrata, and it could only, with
great difficulty, be distinguished from it. Professor
Ray iLankester was the first who made out this
peculiar form of cartilage, which he said was developed
from the mesoblast ; while the lecturer, judging from
the relation the structure bears to the same parts in
insects, believed it to be an epiblastic structure.
This led him to accept the view put forward by Dr.
Patten in America and by Dr. Gaskell in this country,
that the ventral surface of the anterior somites of the
arthropods represents the basis cranii of the verte-

brata. The relationship between the nervous
system in the vertebrates and the arthropods led him
to adopt Dr. Gaskell's hypothesis, inasmuch as it
harmonised many things which had formerly
puzzled biologists. For many years it had never
occurred to him to compare any parts of the arthro-
pods with the functional corresponding parts in the
vertebrata. As soon as Dr. Gaskell showed that
there 'were strong reasons for believing that the
central canal of the spinal cord corresponds with the
primary intestinal canal, the difficulty considerably
diminished, and many parts of the insect were found
to correspond so closely to parts of the vertebrate,
that it was no longer possible to ignore the corres-
pondences between the structures, both in develop-
ment and in relation to their anatomical parts.
Having given a description of the insect brain,
Professor Lowne referred to the idea that the
antennae of insects were homologues of the ventral
appendages. The evidence against that idea was
becoming stronger and stronger every day. They
were not lateral appendages, in the usual sense — a
fact long since recognised by Professor Balfour, — but
olfactory organs, corresponding point by point, more
especially in relation to the nerve ganglia, to the
olfactory organs of the vertebrata. Neither did the
eyes of the insect represent ventral appendages ; they
bore no relation whatever to them.

The lecturer entered at great length into the
details of the structure and development of the
arthropod brain, and showed that it possesses many
points of similarity with the cephalic nerve centres of
vertebrates ; that it is developed from three vesicles ;
and that median pineal eyes are developed in the
wall of the middle vesicle. That there is actually a
third ventricle from which the nerve of the median
eyes, ocelli, arises.

The lecturer finally dealt with the development of
the eye. The sensory organs of arthropods were
usually developed by the process of invagination of
the epiblast, just in the same way as the sense
capsules of vertebrates were developed. The eyes
first appeared as a single layer of cells in a kind of
cup-shaped cavity, divided into at least two layers ;
from the surface layer a series of lenses was developed
about 4000 to 6000 in number, instead of one great
lens. In some insects there were as many as 24,000
to 30,000 separate lenses. These form the compound
cornea. The lenses were very remarkable in their
structure, and appeared to consist of a stroma very
much like the stroma of the red blood-corpuscle of a
vertebrate, and a substance which has a very highly
refractive power, and which is fluid and soluble in
ether. This substance gradually passes out through
the stroma after the insect dies, and impregnates the
other tissues, but in a living insect the cornea has the
same kind of brilliancy as in the Vertebrate ; but as
soon as the insect dies the brilliancy rapidly fades,
and in a quarter of an hour it has become quite dull.

I

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

99

The stroma consists of proteid substances, but as
development progresses the albuminous material
gives place to this highly refractive, probably oily
material, and then the lenticular portion of the
cornea becomes reticular after having been treated
with such'reagents as will dissolve out this interfibrillar
substance. About twelve years ago, when examining
the lateral portions of the compound eye of the
lobster, he continually found thickenings beneath the
rod-like bodies which united the corneal portion of
the eye with the nerve centres beneath, and he became
convinced that no nerve structure passed through this
membrane, and then it struck him that, in trying to
make out that this structure was retinal, he was doing
very much the same thing as examining the minute
structure of the crystalline lens of the vertebrata, and
coming to the conclusion that the rod-like fibres of
that lens were in themselves not merely a portion
of the refractive structure, but were actually the
terminals of the optic nerve. He regards the whole
of the structure developed from the superficial epi-
blast as a refracting organ, and with that view he had
termed it the dioptron, or the refractive portion of the
compound eye. In some insects which do not
undergo metamorphosis the great compound eye is at
first small, and consists only of a few facets, but a
new portion of the eye is developed at each shedding
of the integument. The nerve also gradually passes
to the surface, encircles the old nerve, and forms a
new retina. This goes on until at the last the optic
nerve is found very much spread out. During the
last shedding of the skin the whole of the retina
undergoes degeneration, and a new one] [takes its
place ; so that new sets of facets are developed at
each skin shedding, and a new retina is developed
from the nerve centres beneath the dioptron.

In expounding the various theories of insect vision,
the lecturer explained that Midler's theory of
" mosaic vision " was not in itself tenable, because,
in the first place, the images produced would be
blurred, and surfaces of eight or ten inches square,
would only be visible as points at very moderate
distances — say, ten or twenty feet. The theory
which the lecturer propounded was that an inverted
sub-corneal image was formed beneath each corneal
facet, and the great rods of the dioptron produced a
magnified erect image of that portion of the sub-
corneal image which lies in the axis of each. The
integration of these images produces the retinal image
upon what he had described as the "neuron." This
image had actually been demonstrated by Sigismund
Exner of Vienna, who first showed it at the Cologne
Congress of Naturalists. The "mosaic view," or
MiiUer's theory announced about 1826, assumed that
the tubes of the dioptron only permitted axial light to
pass through them ; so that each tube of the dioptron
produces one distinct stimulation of the nerve, and
there could only be as many separate sensations of
light as there are tubes to the dioptron, a supposition

which is quite incapable of explaining vision in an
insect which has perhaps only fifteen or twenty
lenticles of the eye, some only having five or six,
although others have as many as 24,000 to 30,000.
Even in those which have the largest number, the
acuity of vision is not sufficiently explained by
Midler's theory.

OUR LANE.

[Continued /rotn J>. 88.]

THE upper reaches of our lane are much fre-
quented by that lovely and docile bird the
goldfinch {Cardiielis elcgans), for here the thistle-
heads afford him many a dainty meal ; his head-
quarters are, however, in my garden hedge, where,
secure from harm, he builds, and delights us with
his soft and cheerful strain. As sweet, though
less varied, is the song of the beautiful plumaged
chaffinch [Fringilla ccekbs), he, too, is a frequenter
of our lane, and throughout the early spring and
summer months pours out the gladness of his little
heart from daybreak till night casts her dark mantle
on all around. Nor must I forget my sober-coated
protege — most innocent of all the feathered tribe —
the hedge-warbler [Accentor 7nodularis). Use him
very gently, dear reader, he is a most lovable
bird ; soft and low, his plaintive song correctly in-
dicates his innocent nature. Drop for him the tiny
crumb. I love his presence, and glad am I to think
he is influenced by no migratory impulse. Need
it be said that that harmless bird whose trustful
nature leads him to seek man's companionship — his
little, bright- eyed friend, sweet robin red-breast
{Erythaca rubecida) attends us in our garden-strolls,
and claims his daily share of crumbs ; carolling his
bright song by way of thanks. To him, as it is to
others, our garden is a sanctuary, and well he seems
to love it. The yellow-ammer [Emberiza citrinelld)^
too, he loves the hedges and pastures of our lane ;
but he, too, in our garden hedges and ivy builds, nor
do his oft-repeated notes pall on my ear. His
favourite perch is the vane of a weather-cock upon
the top of my summer-house, from whence, hour
after hour, he trills his little varied song ; this, too,
when the songs of other birds have long been hushed.
I always welcome the advent of that tiny bird the
chiff-chaff {Sylvia hippolais), together with that of the
whitethroat {Ctirnica cifterea). Not much have they
to boast of in the way of song, but their sweet
accompaniment to the richer melodies of other
feathered choristers make up the sum of a glorious
concert ; whilst high above the much-besoiled earth,
the skylark {Alauda arvensis) and the woodlark (A.
arborea) pour out at "Heaven's gate" their joyous
hymns of praise.

Adjoining my garden is an arable field, and beyond,
and yet beyond are others, and here the former loves

F 2

lOO

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

to nest, and through the live-long day eings in the
cloudless, or sparselj'- clouded sky. Well hath a writer
designated song the joy of birds — a happy definition,
for surely 'tis the expression of their happiness.

But linger I must not o'er a subject so fraught with
pleasant associations, and scarcely dare I venture to
enumerate birds so common in our lane, and skirting
fields and orchards as the linnet {Linota caitnabina),
wren ( Troglodytes Eiiropmcs), willow-wren {Sylvia tro-
chilus), pied wag-tail {Motacilla YarrelUi), greenfinch
{Coccotkraustes chloris), bullfinch [Fyrrhulavulgaris)^
spotted fly-catcher {Muscicapa grisola), redstart
(Phanicura ruticilld), grasshopper warbler (Salicaria
locustella), and such well-known birds as the siskin,
wood-pigeon, ringdove, starling, meadow pipit,

very numerous — a pair of the former nest in the ivy-
clothed branches of a sycamore in my orchard-hedge,
hard by the house.

A host of rarer visitants must needs be unmentioned.
Enough has been told to inform the naturalist that
the avifauna of our lane is not a limited one. Nor
is animal life restricted to two-footed things. The
nimble rabbit, scared by my footstep may oft be seen
scampering up the lane — the agile squirrel ventures to
leave his woods in search of hazel-nuts— and the
freshly-raised hillocks of loam in the pastures, plainly
indicate the presence of a silent worker — the sleek-
coated mole {Talpce Europcsus'). Those much
persecuted creatures, the hedgehogs, abound in the
meadows ; and into our orchard, the past summer, I

Fig. 71. — The Jay [Gamilus glandarius).

cuckoo, the ubiquitous sparrow, swallow, martin, and
swift. Those restless and beautiful-plumaged birds
the greater and the blue titmice swarm in my garden,
and put my friendship to a severe test when my peas
and pears are in season ; whilst the cole titmouse
{Parus ater) ever finds a welcome. Not seldom the
screech-owl pours out his doleful plaint from trees
hard by,* and the jay (Garrulus glaiidarius) visits
my windows to gather the berries of the cotoneaster.
The nuthatch {Sitta Eiiropica), too, is one of our most
familiar birds, and his frequent tap, tap, tap, assures
us of his presence even when his cry of " chu-whit"
cannot be heard. Magpies, rooks and hawks are

* Her nest is in a yew tree some few yards from the bottom
of my garden.

have good reason to believe, ventured a badger, or
badgers, courageous enough to face an armed host of
wasps ; excavating large cavities, and tearing to
fragments the nests — presumably to devour the grubs.
No smaller animal could have excavated so large a
quantity of earth in a single night. I have not,
however, seen one, but learn that a sporting friend
has several skins of these animals, all of which he has
shot in this neighbourhood. The long-tailed field-
mouse {Mus Sylvaticns), the short-tailed field-mouse
[Arvicola ai-vensis), and shrews are wonderfully
numerous — and that tiniest of four-footed creatures
the elegant harvest mouse {Aficromys tniniitus), is
common in the fields adjoining my garden. A mere
atom of four-footed animality is it, and a stranger to
fear, for on the several occasions that I have come

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

lOI

across them they have made no effort to escape from
my open hand — even when placed upon the earth
have made no haste to seek cover. The pretty
dormouse {Muscardinus avellanarhis) finds many a
snug retreat in the woods hereabout, and of course

Fig. 72. — Nuthatch [Sitta Europi^a),

the domestic mouse (j1/«j- muscules) abounds. Our
lane, too, can boast of more than its complement of
toads, frogs, and slow-worms, and not long since we
found a large adder that had been recently killed on
the sunny open at the top of the lane * — whilst the
grass-snake is common.

(To be continued.)

THE VOICES OF ANIMALS.

IITR. J. G. HODGSON, President of the Man-
-^"-L Chester Elocutionists' Society, recently gave
an address on the above interesting subject. In the
mammalia the general structure of the larynx was
like that of man ; the power and character of the
sound depending on the different degrees of develop-
ment of the vocal cords, and the peculiarity of
structure of the vocal organs. All animals had
their characteristic voices and calls, in more or less
distinct intervals and varied degrees of compass.
The timbre or quality of voice was remarkably
distinct in the different classes of animals, so that a
mistake could not well be made. It also varied in

• These snakes are particularly abundant in certain un-
frequented spots.

those of the same class ; the lamb could disting-uish
the call of its dam by the timbre of her bleat from
that of the rest of the flock. Here the president
showed the larynx of a sheep which he had dissected
the day before. He explained the cartilage?, epi-
glottis, and vocal cords, and noted
that in this instance these cords did
not meet the whole of their length,
for there was an elliptical orifice in
the centre. Lions and tigers with
their magnitude of chest made a
roar that filled the human ear with
a sense of horror, as no doubt it did
the ear of their prey. The depth of
voice gave to the mind the idea of
an enormous being which made
children try to frighten each other
with imitating the sound. The
horse neighed in a descent on the
chromatic scale without even omit-
ting a semitone. It was one of the
most musically-voiced of mammals ;

and the imitation was very difficult.

The ass brayed in a perfect octave,
beginning with a modest whistle,
and, as the poet said, "sings in
sonorous octaves loud and clear."
Haydn had copied one of its ejacu-
lations in his seventy-sixth quartette
i._~*^==- with great success. The bark of a

dog was an instance of an acquired
voice by domestication, much in the
same way as the trotting of the horse
was an acquired movement. In a state of nature the
dog whined, howled, or growled. Columbus found
that the dogs he had previously carried to America
had lost their bark. As with many animals, the dog
was capable of showing difference of feeling — the
shepherd's dog gave the sound of command to the
flock, while a horse knew from the bark whether the
dog would bite his heels or not. Humboldt said the
howling or preacher monkey of South America coidd
be heard two miles, which was due to certain pouches
connected with the larynx and to a drum-like develop-
ment of thehyoid bone. An ape, one of the Gibbons,
produced an exact octave of musical sounds, ascend-
ing and descending the scale by half-tones, so that
perhaps it alone of brute animals might be said to
sing. In the elephant house at Belle Vue Gardens
there were several small monkeys with pleasing sing-
ing voices. It seemed a pity that the meek-looking
and beautifully marked giraffe, that reached in one
case that he had seen a height of 17J feet, should
be voiceless, yet it and the armadillo had no vocal
cords. The chirp of the long-eared bat was said
to be the most acute sound produced by any animal.
Only fiive out of six people could hear it. In reptiles
the larynx was in a rudimentary condition, and the
vocal organs showed considerable divergence. The

132

MARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

crocodiles and caymen made a feeble roaring sound.
One kind of frog had a sound bag at each side of its
mouth that acted as a resonance chamber. This
must have been the case with an African frog he had
heard at the distance of about loo yards. It
made a noise like a loud barking. The tortoise
gave a mere snuffling sound. Snakes had no vocal
cords ; they only produced a hissing sound by driving
air through the narrow opening of the glottis. Most
fishes were mute, yet it was said the mackerel was
an exception, for when taken out of the water it
made a moaning sound, caused by the friction of the
bones of the larynx. Insects, such as crickets, grass-
hoppers, and bees, were considered by the French
naturalist, Goureau, to be more musicians than
singers. Most of their sounds were caused by the
friction of their wings together, or their legs against
their bodies, or by the rapid vibrations of their wings
in flying ; and in bees and wasps the sound might be
increased by the air passing rapidly through the
thoracic air holes. Dr. Carpenter said that "in
Brazil there was a grasshopper that could be heard at
the distance of half a mile, which was as if a man
with a big voice could be heard all over the world."

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

yiN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
./^ OF BOTANY, by E. Aveling (London :
Swan Sonneschein & Co.). Although students of
plants need not fear for lack of good manuals, there
was some room for such a work as Dr. Aveling has
produced. It is laid on new and original lines of
treatment, and is a capital introduction to the
study both of plants and plant-life. Dr. Aveling
here proves himself a thorough teacher — a role which
requires something more than mere technical
knowledge, however full and thorough. His style
and manner of treatment of his subject are as simple
as it is possible to be. The illustrations are
numerous, and mostly original. We cordially
recommend Dr. Aveling's manual to all those who
are anxious to familiarise themselves with the
fascinating science of Botany.

Botany, A concise Manual for Students of Medicine
and Science, by Alex. Johnstone (Edinburgh and
London : Young I. Pentland). This is another new
work on the same subject, treated, however, in a
somewhat different manner — that is, in the shape of
concise notes and summaries of the chief subjects of
botanical science. Mr. Johnstone's book is a kind
of "illustrated digest," and is therefore very useful
for reference or memoriter suggestions. It contains
one hundred and sixty-four illustrations, besides a
numerous series of floral designs. Students will find
Mr. Johnstone's little work of great use to them.

The Medical Annual, 1891 (Bristol : John Wright).
The present is the ninth issue of this increasingly
useful book. It includes among its contributors the

best medical writers of the day. The articles deal
with the latest discoveries and subjects relating to
every department of surgery and medical science.
This year's Annual contains thirty-six original papers,
on as many subjects, by various authors. There is
also a medical, hospital, and asylum directory, and a
large miscellany of information useful to medical men.
The Fishes of North America (New York : Wester-
mann & Co.). We have received the first part of
this work, dealing only with fishes " caught on hook
and line." The two full-sized coloured plates are
fine examples of oleographic art. The wood
engravings, letterpress, and paper are superior, and
altogether this work (which is to consist of forty
parts) will be about the finest yet published on the
subject. The two coloured plates represent the red-
spotted Mascalonge {Lucius masquinongy), and the
Rocky Mountain Trout (Salmo my kiss). We will
duly apprise our readers of the further issues of the
parts of this magnificent work.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
BRITISH DIPTERA.

By E. Brunetti.

[Continued Jrom p. 55.]
BRACHYCERA.

THE Brachycera are more stoutly built than the
Nemocera ; the legs are shorter and thicker ;
the antennse apparently of only three joints, never
flexible (except in Xylophagidce) ; the veins in the
wing are less numerous and more reducible than
those in the Nematocera to a type form ; the alula are
large ; the palpi one or two jointed ; the anal cell in
wing closed.

The larvae are aquatic or terrestrial, some feeding
on animal matter, some on vegetable, principally
when either is in a decaying state ; a few species are
parasitic. The flies inhabit almost every nature of
habitat, and live on the juices of animals or plants.

Mr. Pasco (1880) recognises the Tabanidce as the
most highly developed family, in having nearly all the
parts of a mandibulate mouth, placing the (Estrida:,
in which that organ is more or less obsolete, as the
lowest.

Macquart's Brachycera (agreeing with mine) is
divided into three divisions (on the number of
pieces composing the haustellum), named respectively
HexachixtcE ( Tabanidce only — the haustellum composed
of six pieces) ; TetrachcEtce (the majority of the
remaining families — haustellum of four pieces) ; and
Dichceta: {Louchopteridic to Fhoridce, and the
.Sj'r//^/^/^^— haustellum of two pieces).

In the short analytical tables of genera under each
family, it is of course understood that only the
principal ones are given.

I. Third antennal joint ringed, style or bristle, when
present, always terminal ; third longitudinal vein
always forked.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

103

9.9.

10.

10.10.

8.8.

II.

II. II

7-7

12

12.12

13

14

14.14

13-13

IS-

2. Costal vein diminishing and not attaining tip of wing ;

scutellum generally spined : Stratioinyidie.

2.2. Costal vein extended round tip of wing in nearly

uniform width ; scutellum rarely spined.

3. Alula; large and distinct : Tabanidie.

3.3. Alulae very small : XylophagidiE.

I.I. Third antennal joint unringed ; style or bristle, when
present, dorsal or terminal ; third longitudinal vein
forked or simple.

4. Antennal style or bristle absent, or, when present,

always terminal.

5. Alulae very large: Cyrtidis.

5.5. Alidae moderately large or small.

6. Front and crown deeply indented ; eyes very prominent :

Asilidce.

6.6. Front and crown smooth, often elevated; eyes not

prominent.

7. Third longitudinal vein forked.

8. From the discoidal cell, or from this and the posterior

basal cell together, at most three veins emerge and
reach the border ; therefore, never more than four
posterior cells present.

9. Third antennal joint without style or bristle: Scenopi-

nida.
Third antennal joint with a style or bristle.
Anal cell always attaining the border, and there, either

open or closed : BoinbyliJiF.
Anal cell never attaining the border, generally short

and closed : Kmpidix (part).
From the discoidal cell, or from this and the posterior

basal cell together, at least four veins emerge and

reach the border ; therefore, at least five posterior

cells present.
Three onychia to tarsus : third antennal joint with

terminal bristle : Leptidte.
Two onychia only ; third antennal joint with terminal

style : Tkerevidce.
Third longitudinal vein simple.
Wings lanceolate : Lonchoptcridie.
Wings always rounded at the tip.
Anal lobe of wing distinct.
Antennae with terminal bristle : Plaiypezida.
Antennae with terminal style {Conopina) : Conopida

(part).
Anal lobe of wing rudimentary or absent.
Anterior basal cell short ; posterior united with discoidal

cell : Dolichopidie (part).

15.15. Anicrior basal cell long, reaching middle of wing;

posterior separated from discoidal by a transverse
vein : EmpidiX (part).

4.4. Antennal style or bristle always present and always

terminal.

16. Anal cell long.

17. Proboscis horny, long, simple, or geniculated [My opines) :

Conopidiz (part).

17.17. Proboscis soft.

18. A spurious vein generally present, running along the

third longitudinal vein ; eyes moderately large :
Syrphidce.

18.18. Spurious vein absent ; eyes very large : Pipuncrtlida,

16.16. Anal cell short.

19. Posterior basal cell united to the discoidal : Dolichopidiz

(part). ,

19.19. Posterior basal cell separated from discoidal by a trans-

verse vein.

20. Proboscis and palpi always distinctly present : MuscidcE.

20.20. Proboscis rudimentary; palpi rudimentary or absent:

CEstridcs.

12. StratiomyidiE.

In the "Ent. Month. Mag." for April, 1889, I
gave a list of the British species of this family, with
analytical tables of genera and species.

The venation of all the twelve genera is very
similar, and easily recognised.

The flies chiefly inhabit damp grass, marshes,
aquatic plants, and more or less humid localities, the
larvse feeding on rotten fungi and decaying vegetable
matter.

The life-histories of some of the commoner species
have been fully vrorked out.

There are five sub-famihes, divided as follows : —

Abdomen of five or six segments ; scutellum two-spined or bare.
Discoidal cell emitting three veins : P achy gastrins.

Discoidal cell (or together with posterior basal cell) emit-
ting four veins.

Species never metallic in colour ; always black or

green, with yellow spots or bands.
Scutellum spined (except Netnotelus],

Antennal style thin, long : Clitellarince.
Antennal style short, blunted: Stratioinyincc.
Species always metallic ; Scutellum unspined : i>argi>uF.
Abdomen of seven segments or more ; scutellum two, four, or
six-spined : Berina\

The Clitellarince are represented by Ephippiiiin,
Latr., and Oxyccra, Mg. ; the Stratromyina by
Slratio?nyia, Geoff., Odotttomyia, Mg., and Nemoteliis,
Geoff.

PachygastrincB. — Pachygaster, Mg., three species;
none very common, P. ater, Pz., is easily identified
by the blackish basal half of the wing, whilst in P.
Leackii, Curt., it is nearly all whitish ; long 3 mm.

ClitellarincT. — Ephippitim thoraciciim, Latr., is a
large black fly, with long brownish-black wings,
thick red pubescence on the dorsum, and a strong
large spine on each side of the thorax ; very rare ;
Coombe Wood. It is supposed to take two years to
reach maturity ; long 12 mm.

Oxycera, Mg., is a genus of rather small black flies,
with bright yellow spots and bands at the sides and
tip of the abdomen, the first segment of which is
much contracted.

They occur in the height of summer in long grass,
and are most frequently met with in Dorsetshire ;
long 3-5 mm,

Slratiomyina:. — Large flat-bodied flies, bred in
stagnant water, and usually found in its proximity.
Abdomen black, marked with large yellow side spots
{Stratiomyia, Geoff.), or yellowish, with an angular
dorsal stripe {Odontomyia, Mg.) ; S. furcata, F. (long
11-13 mm.), and O. viridula, F. (long 6-8 mm.),
being the most common species.

Sarginic. — Brilliant metallic-coloured flies, tolerably
common. S. cupraritis, L., is blackish, thorax and
abdomen metallic blue or green, or exhibiting both
colours ; wings with a brown suffusion below the
stigma ; legs thin, black ; long 7-9 mm.

Microchrysa polita, L., is a small bright metallic-
green fly, with clear wings and black legs ; common ;
often occurring in London ; long 4 mm.

Berime. — Per is, Mg. They are smaller than
Odoniotnyia ; in two species the abdomen is reddish
yellow, in the other three, blue-black ; occurs chiefly
in woods.

13. XylophagidcB.

Two genera are British (five species), all very rare.
Their flight is sluggish ; the larva are wood feeders,
and if more frequently searched for, the species
might possibly be bred. Zetterstedt bred more than
one species, I believe, in Scandinavia.

The antennas are attenuated, and somewhat
approach those of the Nemocera in appearance,
Walker thinking the group a link between the two
great divisions Nemocera and Brachycera.

Antennae ten-jointed : Xylophagus, INIg.
Antennae twelve-jointed : Xylemyia, Rond.

104

HARDWl CKE ' S S CIENCE- G OSS IP.

Xylophagus afer, F., is illustrated in Walker's
"Diptera,"i. PI. i., Fig. lo.

14. TabanidiV.

These flies are the largest British diptera, about
twenty species being indigenous ; popularly known as
gad-flies. The old Roman and Greek writers allude
to flies which were evidently species of this group.

The 9 attack cattle, and alighting on the back
of the animal, draw blood by means of the long,
powerful proboscis. The male is comparatively
harmless, and feeds on the juices of flowers. They
pair in the air, and frequent woods and pastures,
their abundance often making certain roads im-
passable, as some species readily attack man. The
Rev. J. G. Wood recommends smearing the face,

Fig- Ti-—Siratiomyia, Geoff.

Fig. T^.—Dioctria, Mg.

Fig. •js.—Thereva, Latr.

neck, and hands with parafiin as a preventive against
their attacks.

Their flight is very rapid, with a loud hum, and
they occur most abundantly in the New Forest.

Two sub-families are recognised, the venation
being the same in both.

No ocelli ; posterior tibiae unarmed ( Taianinar).
Antennae seven-jointed.

Eyes bare : Tabanuj, L.
Eyes pubescent.

Ocellar tubercle on vertex : TheriopUctes, Zell.
No ocellar tubercle : Atylotus, Os. Sac.
Antennae six-jointed : Hccmatopota, Mg.
Ocelli present, three [Pangonince) .
Posterior tibiae with small spine at the tip : Chrysops, Mg.

Tabatiince. — Hamatopota pluvialis, L., is a greyish-
black fly marked with lighter bands ; the wings are
mottled grey, with light curved lines and circles ;
long 8 mm. ; often very troublesome to pedestrians.

Tabanns suddicus, Zell. This species, the largest
British fly, is usually mistaken for T. bovinus, L. (a
much less common species in Britain). It is of a
tawny brown colour, the abdomen being marked

with darker bands ; the wings are pale grey with
tawny veins ; legs tawny with black tarsi tips ; long
20 mm.

T. bromius, L., a smaller species of a grey colour,
with pale grey wings and blackish-grey legs, is also
common ; long 13 mm.

PangonincE. — Chrysops, Mg., is a black and yellow
fly, with light wings, marked deeply with brown in
the cf, those of the q being almost entirely brown;
the sexes also diff'ering in the form of the abdominal
markings ; long 9 mm. ; chiefly from the south coast.
Brauer in 1880 published a splendid monograph of
the European species of Tabanus, his chief specific
characteristics being the number, size, and direction
of the bands on the eyes (coloured during life), the
shape of the antennse, and general form of the frontal
stripe.

1 5- Lep tides.

Six genera and about twenty species are British,
though several others have been wrongly introduced
as such. Long-bodied, large-winged, long-legged

Fig. •;(>.— Asiltts, L.

Fig. 77. — Scenopinus, Latr.

flies of delicate structure, found in woods and shady
localities, the larva living in decaying wood or in the
earth.

Some species inhabit marshes and ditches. The
metamorphoses of several species are known,
Degeer saying they take three years to reach
maturity. De Romand states that the larva has
been known to fast for six months.

The venation of all the genera is similar, but the
structure of the antennae varies.

The three principal genera are thus separated : —

Anal cell open : Leptis, F.
Anal cell closed.

Wings uniformly clear: Chryiopila, Meq.

Wings spotted with brown: Atherix, Mg.

L'ptis tringaria, L., is a large, tawny, long-bodied
fly, with long, tawny legs, and wings tinged with
tawny brown ; abdomen tawny, with a dorsal row of
black spots ; long 9-10 mm.

L. scolopacea, L., an allied species, differs in having
wings marked extensively with brown ; both common.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

105

Chrysopila aitratus, F., and aureus, Mg., are black
flies, smaller than Leptis, with clear wings and dark
brown stigma ; common ; long 7 mm.

Atherix Ibis, F., is a rare species, occasionally
found- in swarms, the 9 2 clinging to one another
at the end of a branch, depositing their eggs, and
dying immediately afterwards ; the mass gradually
enlarging as fresh flies settle on it, and assuming a
pear shape.

L. scolopacea, L., Wlk, i. PI. ii. 6. Z. notata,
Mg., Curt. 705, {Heyschami). C. aureus, Mg.,
Curt. 713. A. Ibis, F., Curt. 26.

16. Asilidcs.

These flies are large, powerful, carnivorous insects,
especially the gi forming an extensive, natural

Fig. ■jZ.—Tabanus, L.

Fig. •]().— BombyHttj, L.

Fig. So.— Pacrocera, Mik.

group, being very abundant in warm countries, the
species there attaining very large size.

R. Desvoidy saw a species of Dasypogon with an
Apis in its mouth.

- Flight powerful, accompanied by a loud hum.
They frequent woods, pastures, and dry, sandy
situations, the larvae living on plant roots.

The metamorphoses of most species are unknown.
The venation is distinct.

Westwood figures larva and pupa of Asilus
crabroniformis, L., in his Class. " Ins.," Vol. ii..
Fig. 129.

Four sub-families, and 14 genera, representing
about 20 species, are British.

Marginal cell open.

No onychia to tarsi: Leptogastrina.

Onychia present : Dasypo^oninie.
Marginal cell closed.

Third antennal joint non stylate : Laphrince.

Third antennal joint stylate : Asilincz.

LeptogastrituB. — Leptogaster cylindrica, Deg. Easily
recognised by its extremely attenuated abdomen,
the short wings, and absence of onychia ; long 9-10
mm.

Dasypogonina:. — Dioctria rujipes, Deg., is a more
stoutly-built black fly, and with pale grey wings, the
two anterior pairs of legs being reddish ; long 1 1 mm.
The six British species of Dioctria are easily recog-
nised, and appear to be most common in Sussex.

Laphrina:, — Two species British ; both uncommon,
(I have taken L. marginata on nut in Kent.)

Asilittcz. — Asilus crabroniformis,^ L., is a large,
pubescent, tawny-brown fly, with the apical half of

Fig. %i.— Leptis, F.

Fig. S2.— Anthrax, Scop.

Fig. 83. — Xylophasus, Mg.

the abdomen yellow ; tawny-brown legs, spiny and
hairy ; yellow wings with brown border. Its flight
is peculiar, settling on the ground every few yards.
Linne says it attacks cattle ; long 18-20 mm.
Dysmachus trigonus, Mg., a smaller, greyish species,
pubescent and spiny, and Machimus atricapillus, Fin.,
an allied species, with the legs prettily marked v/ith
tawny rings, are both tolerably common.

A. crabrotiiformis, L., Wlk. i. PI. ii. 2. L.
cylindrica, Deg., Mg., Sys. Bes. iii. PI. xii. 16
(tipuloides). Laphria margitiata, L., Curt. 94.
Isopogon brevirostris, Mg., Curt. 153. Pamponerus
germanicus, L., Curt. 46.

( To be continued. )

PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORY OF
HEREDITY.

ABOUT a year ago I began the first of a series of
papers on this subject, but was obliged to leave
off owing to the pressure of other work. I had been
struck by the fact that there had been only one or
two casual references in the pages of Science-
Gossip to a subject which was more than any other

[o6

HA RD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OS SIP,

agitating the minds of the present generation of
biologists, and it seemed to me that a sketch of the
theory in question, and its bearings upon the problem
of the factors of organic evohition might be of con-
siderable interest to those of your readers who have
not the time or inclination for a thorough study of
the question. I hope now to be able to carry out
my original scheme and contribute the papers alluded
to.

My immediate object, however, in the present
instance, is to enter a strong protest against the very
unfair and misleading way in which the question has
been now attacked in your pages (Science-Gossip
for February, pp. 25-30).

Mrs. Alice Bodington sets out by deploring that
Mr. Wallace has been " hardly, if at all, influenced by
the discoveries of the last quarter of a century," and
concludes by stigmatising the Neo-Darwinians as an
" unprogressive school which arrogates to itself the
right of claiming to be his (Darwin's) special
disciples." Between these two startling statements
we have a great deal of talk about "inherent" and
"internal" forces, "initiating variation" or "ren-
dering it possible," and about many other equally
curious notions of the phenomena of heredity and
variation. There is hardly a line of argument in the
article, only a series of vague denunciations of the
supDosed one-sided views of the Neo-Darwinians,
founded on a series of the most astounding miscon-
ceptions of what those views are, and of the real
questions at issue.

It hardly appears worth while to go through the
paper pointing out these misconceptions in detail,
but it may be as well to notice a few. Mrs. Boding-
ton says "we are gravely asked to believe that all
these modifications are the result of a series of
accidents occurring generation after generation with
results more and more marked, yet all uninherited
and accidental ! " What does this mean ? Nobody
in his senses ever asked anyone to believe such an
astounding travesty of the theory of natural selection.
Surely, it is at this period of time unnecessary to
point out that the word "accidental" applied to
congenital variations, merely means that the original
occurrence of any particular variation has no reference
to the purpose which it serves, and which enables it
to be fixed by natural selection. Again the in-
heritance of such variations is an experimentally
established fact — a fact, moreover, on which the
whole theory of natural selection rests. What
we do deny is the inheritance of a character ac-
quired during the lifetime of the individual. Mrs.
Bodington has entirely lost sight of the distinction
between these two kinds of characters, which is the
whole point of our position, with the absurd result
that she talks about being asked to believe that
"accidental" (congenital) variations are "unin-
herited," and about " prepossessions against he-
redity ! "

Again, no one in his senses stated the " Law of
the action of the environment upon irritable
Protoplasm" to be "non-existent." All that is
contended is that the effects of such action are not,
among the metazoa, transmitted, as such, to the
offspring.

Professor Weismann does not consider that he has
proved his theory of heredity and variation at all, in
his laboratory or elsewhere, nor did the wildest
enthusiast ever contend that laboratory work will
"explain everything." That his theory is "con-
tradicted by the evidence of paleontologists " is
impossible, since it is impossible that palseontological
evidence can touch such a theory.

Mrs. Bodington apparently refuses to believe in
"a predisposition to point on the part of a germ,"
yet it is sufficiently obvious that such a predisposition
must exist in the germ, however it has got there, or
else how is this character transmitted from parent to
offspring ?

Mrs. Bodington says of Professor Weismann's
statement that " the inheritance of acquired characters
has never been proved either by means of direct
observation, or by experiment," that "such an
assertion takes one's breath away ; " but she carefully
refrains from stating a single instance in which such
inheritance has been proved. It is no answer to
inform us that Darwin believed in such inheritance,
that his belief increased somewhat in later years,
that Mr. Herbert Spencer believes this form of
inheritance to have been still more important. We
know these things, but we are still waiting for proof
of such inheritance — proof such as we have in
abundance as to the inheritance of congenital
variations.

As to the right of those who deny that we caii

accept the inheritance of acquired characters as a

factor in evolution to claim that they are advocating

pure Darwinism, we can only say that they are laying

still more stress on the factor which Darwin first

pointed out, which he always believed to be far the

most important one, and which is for ever connected

with his name.

A. G. Tansley.

Trinity College, Catnbridge.

THE BIRDS OF FORT AUGUSTUS.
By Mervyn Wolseley.

THE neighbourhood of Fort Augustus is well
adapted for birds of every kind, from the great
golden eagle to the tiny jenny wren.

The silent, rocky glens and steep mountain sides
form perfect fortresses for the golden eagle and
lordly peregrine. The woods and plantations afford
a safe resting-place for the smaller birds ; while the
heather-covered moors abound in grouse and black-
cock. Flocks of pigeons dwell among the wooded
glens, and the swamps and marshes are filled with

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

107

every variety of wader. The lakes and rivers,
teeming as they are with fish, invite to their rippling
surface crowds of hungry water-birds. It would be
safe to assert that we have quite a hundred and thirty
different kinds of birds, which stay with or visit us
during the course of the year.

The golden eagle can sometimes be seen, either
hovering over some doomed hare, or circling round
and round on the look out for a victim, to satisfy its
appetite. A pair of these birds build every year on a
tree near Invermoriston ; but they are strictly
preserved, or their eggs would soon fall into the
hands of some naturalist. But these birds can only be
seen among the hills, as they seldom venture near the
more cultivated ground in the valleys. The bold
peregrine is the largest of our falcons. I once saw a
very interesting battle between a couple of these
warriors and a golden eagle. It lasted for upwards
of an hour, but, unfortunately, I was not able to see
the end of the battle, as the combatants went over
the neighbouring mountains. There are three nesting
places of this bird known — one of them not more
than a mile from the village of Fort Augustus. A
pair of merlins used to live here, but they have
recently been shot by some keeper. Sparrow-hawks
and kestrels are also seen — the latter in great
abundance, for there are no less than ten nests in the
neighbourhood of the village. The pretty osprey, or
fishing hawk, is among our many visitors in the spring.
It formerly laid its eggs along the side of Loch
Ness, on a tree jutting over a precipice, but even in
this secure position its eggs were taken, so it was
obliged to shift its quarters, and it is not known for
certain where it builds at present.

Finches, buntings and other species of little birds
are fairly numerous, chaffinches and yellow-hammers
being about the commonest. The pretty little siskin
has been shot here more than once, but it is
considered a very rare bird. A great grey shrike was
shot by one of the boys of our college in the act of
eating a redpole. The nest and eggs of a red -backed
shrike were found some years ago. We have very
few birds belonging to the swallow family. The
sand martin, certainly, cannot be called rare, but
both the swallow and the house martin are very
scarce. Swifts are also decidedly rare. House
martins and swallows used frequently to be met with,
building in great numbers under the eaves of the
college tower, but of late they have quite deserted us.
I have only seen one nightjar, and have not heard
of the nest or eggs having been discovered. Cross-
bills come over in large flocks, during the month of
July, and a few pairs are often seen about April or
May, but they are usually shot down and not given a
chance to breed. Thrushes, ring-ousels, dippers, wheat-
ears, and others of this family are in great numbers
during the spring and summer. The plantations are
inhabited by flocks of tits and golden-crested wrens.

The Corvidae family are exceedingly numerous,

especially the little jackdaw, which builds in the
rabbit holes on a precipitous cliff", surmounted by an
ancient vitrified fort. Hooded crows are by no
means rare : they live along the birch-covered hills,
and a keeper once told me that he destroyed about
forty nests belonging to this bird, during one season,
in his own district. Rooks and crows are not so
numerous as in other places. The bold raven, how-
ever, is a resident in the district. There are three
nesting places, but they are all among the hills, as
this bird is very shy and likes to make its home as
far as possible from the haunts of men.

There are three different kinds of grouse here,
namely the red and black grouse and the ptarmigan.
The two first live on the extensive moors on the
mountain sides, while the last can only be found on
the tops of the highest hills. Corriearrick, on the
road to Kingussie, about ten miles off, is the best
place to see them, and their eggs have been dis-
covered there. They can only be visited in the
summer, as the place is inaccessible in winter, on
account of the snow, so the birds are not seen in the
best of their plumage.

The only kind of pigeon we possess is the wood
pigeon, or ring-dove. These are found in countless
numbers among the wooded glens, and thence they
come in flocks to the cornfields, from which each
carries away its cropful of corn.

The waders are most numerous in the seasons of
spring and summer. During the month of March,
our sw^amps are filled with plovers, snipe, and curlews,
splashing about in the shallow waters and pushing
their long beaks into the soft mud in search of food.
Thence they make their way to their respective
nesting places. The plovers select the marshy spots
among the hills ; the snipe fly to the rushes, which
fringe the edges of the neighbouring lakes ; while
the curlews live on the open moors, whence their
shrill whistle may constantly be heard. A very fair
heronry exists on one of the islands in Loch Knockie,
about eight miles from Fort Augustus. The large
nests can be seen nearly half a mile off. While you
are on the island, the herons fly distractedly over-
head, supported on their mighty wings and looking
rather awkward with their long necks and legs.
The golden plover, and the red and greenshanks can
be seen only on the high lakes, among the mountains,
where they breed. Sandpipers are most plentiful
along the banks of the lakes and rivers. The hand-
some sea-pie, or oyster-catcher, arrives here, with its
other companions, in the spring. There is only one
place where it is known to breed, and that is about a
mile and a half up the canal, near CuUochy Locks.
The pretty moor-hen, with its red and yellow beak
and long green legs, stays with us the whole year
round, sometimes having the swamps all to itself.

The water-birds are fairly numerous, owing to the
quantity of rivers and lakes in the district. The
black-throated diver is one of the largest of these.

io8

HARDWICKK S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

It is known to lay on the islands in Loch Lundi and
Loch Nan Criche. The pair at Loch Lundi, however,
have been conjectured to be great northern divers,
but as they are very shy birds, it is almost impossible
to obtain a good look at them. The eggs found
there were certainly much larger than those of a
black-throated diver. Red-throated divers are much
more plentiful ; their nearest nesting-places are Loch
Tarff and Loch Knockie. One was shot not long
ago by one of our boys, a short distance from the
entrance of the Caledonian Canal. Cormorants are
in fair quantities ; nearly every day one or two can be
seen flying overhead to their feeding-grounds. A pair
is supposed to build on the shores of Loch Ness, but
no one has yet found the nest. Six kinds of ducks
either breed or visit us during the summer, namely,
the mallard, widgeon, golden-eye, tufted duck, shield-
rake, and teal. Mallards are very plentiful ; I have
seen upwards of three hundred rise together in some
of the bays down the lake. The tufted duck, widgeon,
and shieldrake are rare, and only seen occasionally.
A few pairs of golden-eyes inhabit the lakes, and the
teal is nearly as common as the mallard. The grey-
lag goose is occasionally encountered, and is supposed
to build at Loch Nan Ean, near Invermoriston.
Gulls of all kinds build on any of the lakes possessing
islands. The common gull is the most plentiful, and
lays on Lochs Tarff, Lundi and Nan Criche. Black-
headed gulls, on the other hand, are restricted to
Loch Lundi, where they keep a little corner to them-
selves. A pair of lesser black-backed gulls breed on
Loch Nan Criche. Kitiwakes, greater black-backed
gulls, and herring gulls are often seen, [but they,
however, prefer the west coast to lay their eggs.

The above enumeration, which is by no means
exhaustive, will give some idea of the number and
variety of birds which frequent our neighbourhood.
The cause of this is, doubtless, to be found in the
diversified nature of the country, which is thus
admirably adapted to afford sustenance to our
feathered friends, and enable them to supply their
widely different needs.

The Abbey School, Fort Augustus, N.B.

THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE
THAMES VALLEY.

Abstract (by the author) of a Lecture delivered before
the Windsor and Eton Scientific Society, on
February 19th, 1891, by the Rev. A. Irving,
D.Sc, Senior Science Master in Wellington
College, Berks.

Introductory Remarks.

THE geological history of ' Father Thames ' has
a special and local interest for the millions of
dwellers upon his banks. But to the geological student
this interest is greatly magnified by the fact that of
the larger modern river-valleys of Britain that of the

Thames (in its wider sense) is certainly one of the
most ancient. Its history from the geologic stand-
point is almost co-extensive with Tertiary time and
all that has followed since. We shall see, as we
proceed, that the Upper or Oxford Basin is a com-
paratively recent addition to the line of the Thames
drainage ; the true geological history of the Thames
is identified with the line of drainage marked
approximately by the valley of the Kennet, and that
of the Lower Thames (below Reading).* This must
be regarded as the lower course (Unterlauf) of
a great river whose middle course (Mittellauf) and
head-waters (Sammelgebiet) were found in the great
mountain-system which made the mountains of
Scandinavia continuous with the once higher
mountains of Brittany, the worn-down stumps of
those appearing in the palaeozoic and archrean rocks,
of the more mountainous portions of the north and
west of Britain. [Reasons were given for considering
this a more likely gathering-ground of the head-
waters of the great Eocene river, than a hypothetical
vast stretch of continental land to the west.]

The duplicate basin of the modern Thames consists
of the Oxford Basin, draining chiefly Jurassic rocks ;
and the Lower or London Basin, in which we have
only to do with the rocks of Cretaceous and Tertiary
age, and with Quaternary and recent deposits. This,
latter basin, briefly sketched, lies in a synclinal valley
of the Chalk, the chalk hills rising to 975 feet at
Inkpen, the culminating point of the Kingsclere axis,,
and to 850 feet in the Downs of the White Horse range,,
no important transverse incision being made by rivers.
The Kennet rises near the Chalk escarpment to the
west at not more than 500 feet ; the valley of this-
river being probably the truncated valley of the chief
arterial line of drainage of Southern Eocene England.
As the Chalk escarpment is cut through on the north-
west, at the Pangbourne and Goring gorge, so the
Chalk escarpment of the North Downs is cut through,
by tributary streams, which rise on or near the axis
of the Weald. We pass by the question of the
relative claims of the * Seven Wells' or the ' Head of
Isis ' to represent the true source of the Thames,t not
only because the Windrush or the Cherwell may, for
length and volume of water, establish a better claim
than any of the streams which rise near the escarp-
ment of the Cotswolds above Cricklade, but much
more because, from the point of view of geological
histor}', no part of the present drainage of the Oxford
Basin has any claim whatever. The Kennet-Thames
line of drainage served as the channel of a much
greater volume of- water than in recent times, while
the present area of the Oxford Basin was drained in
other directions, mainly perhaps in the direction of
the Ouse, towards the old North Sea.

The succession of the British rocks, the classifica-

* See "Journal of the Geol. See," vol. xliv., pp. 178, 179.
i" See Professor Phillips, " Geology of Oxford and the Valley
of the Thames," chap. iii.

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

109

tion of the Tertiaries established by Lyell, and the
grounds of that classification were then briefly touched
upon ; and some reference was made to Prestwich's
Geological Map of Europe, and to Professor Zittel's
sketch-maps of the distribution of land and water in
middle and western Europe in Cretaceous and Eocene
times,*

It was thus briefly pointed out how the great
Cretaceous sea was broken up into a number of
detached areas of deposition, one such area being
the Eocene Anglo-Gallic Basin, which included the
south-east of England, the north of France, and
Belgium ; and the data, on which our knowledge of
this is based, were briefly touched upon. In this
basin were deposited the Lower London Tertiaries ;
the Thanet Beds (marine) to the east ; and the
Woolwich and Reading Beds, with marine shells in

First Delimitation of the Tamisian Area.

The initiation of the movements which have taken
place along the line of the Kingsclere-Hindhead axis
was the first step towards the delimitation of the
Eocene Tamisian area of drainage. This may have
occurred in early Eocene time, since there seems to
be no clear evidence to show that the London Clay
and the Bagshot Beds of the London area were ever
continuous with those of the Hampshire Basin, while
the diminished thickness of the London Clay, where
it lies against the flank of the great anticlinal, and
underlies the Bagshot Beds * (as at Highclere),
points to the end of the London Clay period as the
forward limit (in time) for the movement referred to.
On the other hand the maintenance of a pretty
constant thickness by the Woolwich and Reading

Aylesbury. The Chilterns
N i

Windsor.

Bagshot.

Hog's Back.

Hindhead.

Fig, 84,— Digrammatic Sections through Windsor; showing probable position of Strata at end of Eocene.

Fig. 85.— Showing probable position of Strata during Pliocene. — p g, Platean-gravcls ; b s, Bagshot Sands ; Lc, London clay ;
W R, Woolwich and Reading Beds ; CH, chalk ; x, formations older than the chalk.

east Kent, with estuarine shells in West Kent and East
Surrey, becoming unfossiliferous, except for an
occasional flora (as at Reading), in Berks. The
evidence which these facts furnish of the drainage in
early Eocene time, having come from the west, was
dwelt upon. The numerous outliers of the Woolwich
and Reading Beds, and the wide distribution of the
sarsens and conglomerates, which we can identify
with them, upon the present dip-slopes of the two
Chalk ranges, which bifurcate towards Norfolk and
Dover respectively, and even beyond the present
principal escarpment of the Chalk (as at Avebury),
tell of the enormous extent of this ancient Eocene
estuary, which Sir Andrew Ramsay has compared, in
extent and importance, with the modern estuaries of
the Ganges and of the Amazons, t

" Aus der Urzeit " (Oldenbourg, Munich), Tafn. iii. and iv.
t " Phys. Geol, of Great Britain '" (5th ed.), p. 247.

Beds and their lithological similarity in Berks and
Hants, seem to tell us that no important movement
along the axial line occurred during the period of
their deposition. The small areal range of outliers of
London Clay on the Chalk Hills of Oxfordshire,
Bucks and Herts to the north, and of Hants, Berks,
Surrey and Kent to the south, affords another
indication of the diminution of the area of deposition
of the London Clay as compared with that of the
formations which preceded it.

As is often seen to be the case, these initial move-
ments on the southern line of elevation, and probably
movements on a Mercian line of elevation also, had
their counterpart in a corresponding depression of
the intermediate synclinal, which was gradually
filled with the sedimentary deposits, whose accumu-
lations have given us the London Clay.

• "Journal of the Geol. Soc," loc. supra cU.

no

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The causes of such differential movements of parts
of the earth's lithosphere were briefly discussed, and
referred to contraction of the crust as the prime
factor. The Kingsclere-Hindhead axis of elevation,
like the Wealden axis of elevation which was
connected with it later on, was thus regarded as a
slight wrinkle in the crust, or one of a series of slight
wrinkles, determined by the slight circumferential
approximation of the two great stable archsean and
palceozoic masses of Central Europe and France on
the one side, and of the north and west of Britain on
the other ; the weaker and newer strata of the inter-
mediate area getting pinched up and slightly folded.
This was shown to be strictly comparable with the
effect of the later Tertiary movements of the Alpine
chain upon the intervening Secondary and Tertiary
strata, as indicated in the section across the Upper
Po-Basin, which the author has recently received
from Professor Sacco, of Turin.*

The estuarine character of the London Clay, and
its gradual passage upwards from deposits having the
character of those of a marine estuary to those of a
more constricted river-mouth, were pointed out ; and
the evidence adduced from Foraminifera by Professor
Rupert Jones, and from the fauna and flora in general
by Professor Prestwich, as to the depths of the
waters, in which the deposits were laid down, were
briefly discussed. The significance of the distribution
of septaria and a molluscan fauna chiefly in the lower
200 to 300 feet of the formation, as discussed by the
lecturer several years ago,t was also pointed out, as
well as the indications which the organic remains
give of the prevalence of a tropical or sub-tropical
climate in Eocene times. Ascertained thicknesses of
the London Clay, beneath the overlying Bagshots (i)
at Hampstead 300 feet, at Wokingham 270 feet, at
Bearwood 250 feet, (ii) at Wellington College 330
feet, at Brookwood 370 feet (or more), at Chobham
Place 400 feet, at Claremont 450 feet, and at
Wimbledon 430 feet, were cited as indications that
the line of greatest depression during the London
Clay period was some miles further south than the
present line of the Lower Thames. The areal
extension of the London Clay, and its gradation of
thicknesses from east to west, tell us that the area of
depression was a synclinal with its axis inclined to
the east ; in other words, it took the form of a
segment of a cone rather than of a cylinder, forming
what Sacco has called a " cone of depression " (" cona
di dejezione."). The elevation of the Kingsclere-
Hindhead axis subjected the Chalk strata first to the
action of sea-waves, which manufactured from its
flints the numerous pebbles found in the Reading
beds, as well as the few which are scattered through
the London Clay ; and we should probably not be far

* "La Geo-tectonique de la Haute Italie Occidentale,"
" Bull, de la Soc. Beige de Geologie, S-c," tome iv., 1890.

t See "Geol. Mag.," 1886, No. 9, on " The Unconformity
between the Bagshot Beds and the London Clay."

wrong if we considered the denudation of the Weald
as having in places cut through the Upper Chalk by
the close of the London Clay period ; but we have no
evidence to show that the Wealden elevation at this
early stage was anything more than a part of a
plateau-like region similar to that on the Mercian
side of the Tamisian area. For all we know it may
have been such, and have continued to rise, without
much change in its contour-details through the whole
of the Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene periods, until
the Wealden anticline proper began to take its
shape in the Pliocene period. We shall return to
this later on.

Condition of things in later Eocene time.

The established attenuation of the sands which are
known as Lower Bagshot, which in many of the
more central parts of the area seem to form an
upward extension of the London Clay formation, and
which Professor Prestwich* has recently correlated
on such grounds with the London Clay under the
name of the " London Sands," tells us of the further
accentuation in later Eocene time of the structural
features already initiated, as we have seen, for the
south of England ; while the fact, that either these
sands, or the overlapping Bagshot beds of higher
horizons, rest upon the lower portions of the London
Clay with molluscan remains and septaria along the
northern flank of the area, afibrds indication of the
progressive accentuation of the synclinalf during the
portion of geologic time indicated by those deposits.
Silting up proceeded ; things seem to have become
stationary for a period ; deltaic clays and lagoon-
deposits were laid down, certainly from as far west
as Newbury, to a long distance towards the east, as
far, at least, as Essex, as indicated by the section
through Brentwood Common, recently published by
Professor Prestwich. J

Wokingham, Bracknell, Warfield,§ and possibly
Windsor Park itself, were mentioned, as localities
where this transgressive relation of the Bagshot
strata to the London Clay seems to be indicated ;
while further east, at Hampstead jl and Brentwood^
a similar relation of things can be traced. On the
south side of the Eocene formations of the Tamisian
area the high dip of the strata has led to more
extensive denudation, and so we cannot adduce such
good evidence ; nevertheless there are reasons for
regarding certain outlying masses of Tertiary sands

* "Journal of the Geol. Soc," February, 1888.

f Such a progressive accentuation of a synclinal flexure has
been well worked out in the case of the basin of the Po by Dr.
Sacco of Turin. See his valuable paper, " Classification des
Terrains Tertiaires," "Bull, de la Soc. Beige de Geologie,"
&c., tome i., 18S7. In that region the accentuation seems to
have gone on intermittently all down through Tertiary time,
while in the Thames area it appears to have been intercepted
by elevation at the end of the Eocene.

% "Journal of the Geol. Soc," vol. xlvi., PI. vii., Fig. 5.

§ See the author's papers, ibid., vols, xliii., xliv.

y "Mem. Geol. Survey," vol. iv., p. 309.

^ Prestwich, "Journal Geol. Soc," loc. cit.

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G 0 SSI P.

Ill

on the North Downs at altitudes of 500 feet to 600
feet as belonging to the Bagshot or later Eocene ;
and these lie either on the Chalk or on the Reading
Beds. This has been discussed by the author
elsewhere.* If, as the hypothesis requires, some
accentuation of the synclinal during the latter part of
the London Clay period and during the Bagshot
period, took place (against which no h priori reason
can be alleged), the facts just enumerated would
receive a rational explanation. The Upper Bagshot
Sands, however, retain remains of a fauna, which
indicates the conditions obtaining in a marine
estuary ; and as these have now been identified as
far west as Highclere it would seem that towards the
close of the Eocene period a narrow arm of the sea
extended from the open sea towards the east,
westwards as far as the place just mentioned, and
' perhaps somewhat further. This will be better
understood by reference to the section (Fig. i),
which is, of course, like the next, only a diagram-
matic representation, drawn through the longtitude
of Windsor, of what was probably the relation of
things in the Tamisian area towards the close of the
Eocene period.

The Pliocene Period. (See Fig. 85.)

In the shallowing of the waters of the Hants and
Seine Basin during the Oligocene period, we seem to
have the initiation of a more general upward
movement, which perhaps continued through the
Miocene ; the failure to identify any deposits of the
latter period in the London and Paris Basins going to
show that the south-east of England (as w-ell as the
north of France) were for all that length of time dry
land, the superficial strata therefore undergoing
destruction by atmospheric agencies. The chalk
especially must have suffered enormous waste
through the removal of its carbonate of lime by
carbonated atmospheric waters, leaving its flints (in
some places largely mixed with the clay residue of
the chalk) to accumulate upon the uplands, both on
the north and south sides of the Tamisian valley,
just as we see them at the present time accumulated
upon the chalk downs above Ventnor.f

With the Pliocene movements the Weald probably
attained its maximum elevation ; though there are
reasons for supposing that this elevation was not
commensurate throughout the whole distance, but
somewhat in excess towards the western part, which
was lifted above the sea, while further east marine
waters still encroached upon it to a much greater
extent, depositing strata of which the well-known
Lenham deposits are the remnants.^ This is further
borne out by the fact that on the north side of the

* " Geol. Mag." for September, 1890, pp. 403 et seq.

t See the author in " Proc. Geol. Assoc," vol. viii., "On
the Bagshot Beds of the London Basin, and their Associated
Gravels;" also the "Journal of the Geol. Soc," vol. xlvi.,
P- 558.

: See " Geol. Mag.," loc. cit.

Tamisian area there must have been towards the east
some depression, with the consequent encroachment
of the waters of the Anglo-Germanic Sea, laying
down the Crag of the Eastern Counties, and filling
up the valleys and hollows which had been cut into
the London Clay during the preceding Miocene
elevation of the area. The great Pliocene elevation
of the Weald, which, working independently, both
Professor Prestwich and the author have come to
regard as the most important factor in determining
the present surface-geology of the south-east of
England, which also probably had its counterpart
in a more regional elevation on the Mercian side,
would seem to have two most important results : (i)
it gave a general tilt to the north of the Eocene
strata of the Tafnisian area, and so threw the main
line of drainage further north, initiating the present
actual Thames Valley, while erosion was facilitated
along that line by the weakness of the strata
themselves ; (2) a higher gathering-ground for tri-
butary waters from the Wealden hill-range, and a
general declivity to the north of the Eocene area,
furnished the requisite conditions for the transport of
the flints of the Chalk region, the flint pebbles
washed out of the Eocene beds as their destruction
on the north flank of the Weald advanced, and the
Neocomian chert fragments, which, together with the
flints and a few quartz pebbles, constitute the
materials of the Plateau -gravels.* The erosion of
the uplands of the Weald had evidently by this time,
made such deep incisions into the strata, as to lay
bare to the action of denuding agencies considerable
portions of the Neocomian or Lower Greensand ;
though this proceeded slowly enough for the trans-
verse drainage to cut down its valleys through the
Chalk escarpment, which even then must have begun
to take shape.

The one incision of this kind across the strike of
the chalk on the Mercian side of the Tamisian area,
that of the Pangbourne and Goring gorge, was in all
probability initiated too in Pliocene time, but the
area of drainage concentrated upon this line was
much smaller than at present. It would appear that
the head-waters of the present Ouse are cut off from
those of the Cherwell and the Thame by a watershed
largely composed of glacial drift ; at least the
author's own observations of that district have led
him to regard this as probable. If this were so, we
should have to date the outlining of the present
Upper or Oxford Basin of the Thames rather late in
Quaternary time, the Pangbourne gorge having
been no doubt deepened considerably during the
Glacial period.

The tilting to the north of the Eocene strata, as a
result of the great Pliocene elevation of the western
portion of the Weald, perhaps affected the more

* "Journal of the Geol. Soc," loc. cit.; also Prestwich,
ibid., vol. xlvi., on the Southern Drift.

112

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

easterly portion of the area but slightly. If the
great east-and-west fault, which has been traced
ilong the Thames Valley below London,* can be
dated back to Pliocene time, it probably had much
to do with the definition of the main line of drainage
towards the east. With this great Pliocene move-
ment was also connected probably the minor
differential movement, which hfted up the Chalk
and Eocene strata along the Windsor-Marlow axis,
turning the course of the ancient valley still further
to the north between Reading and Windsor, and
accounting for the elevation of the chalk which
forms the site of Windsor Castle. The present
angle which the river makes, as it turns northwards
to Henley, has perhaps been the result of special
and local erosion of the Eocene strata at a somewhat
later period, owing to the great increase of the
erosive power of the river, after the deepening of the
Pangbourne gorge, and the inflow of the waters
collected from the present Oxford Basin.

The case here supposed of the determination of a
main line of drainage by a general tilting of the
strata is not a solitary instance of the kind. It can
be paralleled, on a much grander scale, by the
general tilting (also to the north), of the great
Tertiary series of strata deposited in the narrow
Helvetico-Germanic sea, which skirted the Alpine
chain before the period of its last and greatest
elevatory movement. Across the gentle declivity
thus formed of Tertiary strata the drainage of a great
part of the Alpine chain, including the whole of the
Eastern Alps, now finds its way to join the Upper
Danube, which, as von Dechen's Map of Germany
shows, skirts the old Mesozoic coimtry of Bavaria
and Wiirtemberg, and the still older Archaean region j
of Lpper Austria, all the way from its emergence i
from the Black Forest country down to Krems. '
This we must certainly connect with the last Alpine
elevation.

( To be continued.)

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Dr. W. Somerville has been appointed by the
Techinal Education Committee of the Northumber-
land County Council to the Professorship of Agri-
culture and Forestry recently founded in the Durham
College of Science, Newcastle.

We are sorry to announce the death of an old and
frequent correspondent of Science-Gossip, Mr.
Andrew Brotherston, of Kelso, at the age of fifty-
seven.

Between December 9th lastyear and February 5th,
seven great bustards (,Otis tarda) were shot (of

• Whitaker, " Mem. GeoL Survey," vol. iv., p. 353.

course !) in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, Hants,
Wilts, and Carmarthenshire.

Mr. S. W. Burnham, with the great Lick
refractor (California), has observed the nearest
companion of Aldebaran, while passing through its
periastion at a distance of only o' 13" from the large
star. And from old measures of position, angle, and
distance, he has obtained a satisfactory orbit.

Mr. Edward Bartlett (son of Mr. Bartlett of
the "Zoo") has been appointed Curator of the
Government Museum at Sarawak.

The following are the Lecture Arrangements of the
Royal Institute after Easter : — Mr. J. Scott Keltic,
Three Lectures on the Geography of Africa, with
special ; reference to the Exploration, Commercial
Development, and Political Partition of the
Continent ; Dr. E. E. Klein, Three Lectures on
Bacteria : their Nature and Functions (the Tyndal
Lectures) ; Mr. W^illiam Archer, Four Lectures on
Four Stages of Stage History (the Betterton, the
Gibber, the Garrick, and the Kemble Periods) ;
Professor Dewar, Six Lectures on Recent Spectro-
scopic Investigations ; Dr. A. C. Mackenzie, Four
Lectures on the Orchestra considered in connection
with the Development of the Overture ; Professor
Slyvanus P. Thompson, Four Lectures on the
Dynamo ; Mr. H. Graham Harris, Three- Lectures
on the Artificial Production of Cold ; Professor A.
H. Church, Three Lectures on the Scientific Study
of Decorative Colour. The Friday Evening
Meetings were resumed on April loth, when a
Discourse was given by Sir William Thomson, on
Electric and Magnetic Screening.

Good news fox potato growers ! Sulphate of
copper has been found not only an antidote to
potato disease, but also highly conducive to an im-
proved and heavier crop, in some instances to the
extra value of 5/. an acre.

Mr. C. Vernon Boys has been making measure-
ments of the heat of the moon by means of his very
delicate radiomicrometer. His method was to focus
the rays of the moon on the face of the radiomi-
crometer by a reflecting telescope of 16 inches
aperture. In the case of a new moon, he found that
the heat coming from its disc diminished as you
passed from the convex to the concave edge, and
that from the dark surface was so slight as not to
affect the apparatus. The maximum radiation of
heat came from points of the disc itself, not from its
limbs. At full moon the maximum point was at the
centre of the disc. The side of the moon which had
been exposed to the sun for fourteen days was not
warmer than that which had been exposed for seven
days. No sensible heat was observed to come from
the stars.

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

"3

The Eleventh Annual Exhibition of the S. London
Entomological Society, was held at the Bridge House
Hotel, London Bridge, S.E., on Wednesday, the
15th ult., and was continued on the Thursday
following from I P.M.

MICROSCOPY.

Preservation of Melicerta Ringens. — Last
May you inserted a paragraph bearing the above
heading, in which I narrated how I had preserved
in captivity this organism for twelve months without
any interregnum. I have to-day to recount a further
success in this matter. During the last year I have
never been without numbers of this rotifer ; at the
present time I have very many. Only once have I
feared that I might lose this attractive creature
altogether, and this was on my return home last
October, after my autumn holiday. I found during
my absence that certain juvenile members of my
family, out of the overflowing kindness of their
hearts, had fed the sticklebat with pieces of biscuit
as large as hazel nuts, and the plants, too, had been
permitted to grow unpruned ; consequently, on my
return, I found the whole aquarium exceedingly
offensive, necessitating a thorough cleansing. This
was given, together with a reduction in the amount
of plant-life, and the first change of water for over
two years. The pruning of the weeds proved to be
a somewhat dangerous experiment, plant growth at
this season of the year naturally almost ceasing ; this,
together with the exceedingly severe winter, for a
short time imperilled the maintenance of the whole.
Fortunately all, however, has gone well, and meli-
certa has continued abundant ; so numerous, indeed,
as to become so crowded upon the somewhat scanty
plants as to cause them to attach their tubes to one
another in the manner we are informed more common
in the American waters than our own. I have to
add that I still consider the plants named in my
previous communication to be very good plants for a
small aquarium. The sticklebat still survives. Can
any reader inform me as to the natural duration of
life of this fish 1—J. W. Measures, M.R.C.S.

ZOOLOGY.

Mounting Shells. — From a paragraph in the
April number of SciENCE-Gossir, I see that a
correspondent has got into difftculties on the above
subject. To my mind mounting good shells on tablets
is downright sinful, as, no matter what mounting
media are used, the specimens are certain to be more
or less injured. Though I do not " mount " my own
collection, I can speak with considerable experience
as to its pernicious effect, as only too many of the
specimens I receive in exchange are spoilt by one or

more unsightly patches showing where they have
formerly been fixed to tablets. Judging from the
instances I have seen, the various gelatine cements,
especially those which are applied in a heated con-
dition, are the worst offenders. At the Natural
History Museum I believe they are very thick gum
arable, which is open to less objection, but perhaps
the best cement, though possibly not a very secure
one, would be wax (preferably such as is used for
modelhng) as it can be readily softened by moulding
in the fingers. But why mount shells at all ? a
collection is far more useful when it is possible to
take up each specimen separately and examine it on
all sides without the necessity of first detaching it
from a mount. Undoubtedly the best, though un-
fortunately rather expensive, method of storing shells
is to keep them in glass-top boxes, rectangular being
superior to circular ones. The most convenient
dimensions aie : depth three inches ; width two and
four inches ; .length, varying in half inch steps, from
one inch upwards. The British Mollusca and part of
the general collection at the Natur^i History Museum
are arranged in this way. Card-board trays come
next in order of merit, and as they can be easily and
quickly made by an amateur after very little practice,
are very cheap. The superficial dimensions given
above for boxes will be found convenient for these
also, but a depth of half an inch is sutticient. In
order to save work, the corners need not be bound.
In my own collection through want of funds, boxes
and trays are used together in the same drawer, the
boxes being reser\'ed for delicate specimens which
might be broken if loose in a tray. As the boxes and
trays are made on the same system they fit in exactly.
While on this subject, I might refer to another method
of spoiling shells, namely writing on the specimens
themselves. Names and other information should
always be written on a slip of paper placed in the box
or tray, but I hope soon to speak about labels more
at length.— .5". Pace, 252 Fulham Road, S.W.

A NEW VARIETY OF Helix Cantiana.— The
specimen to which the following description applies
was taken from near Sittingbourne, in Kent, by Miss
Muriel Norton, and forwarded to me for the purpose
of naming by "six. W. E. Swanton, who has it now in
his collection. As far as I am aware, the variety is
new — indeed, very few varieties of H. cantiana have
been described — but, as its deviations from the type
are distinctly marked, I have considered it worthy of
a variety-name, and have called it var. caiialiciilata.
The specimen resembles in some features what I have
previously described as var. elevaia in the first
number of the " Conchologist " (readers of this note of
mine on this variety will kindly oblige the writer by
erasing the semicolon between the words "spire"
and " compressed," and in reading "canaliculate"
instead or " canaliculata,") but, in this instance, the
spire is depressed and does not rise about half a

114

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

millimetre above the body-whorl. Var. canaliculata,
Willms. Shell white, rather solid ; suture between
body-whorl and preceding whorl deeply and triangu-
larly canaliculate ; spire depressed and very slightly
elevated above the upper level of the body-whorl ;
umbilicus somewhat wider than in type and exposing
more of the whorls within. Width fifteen mill. ;
height nine mill. The most distinctive characteristics
are the sub-depression of the spire, and the deep
triangular canaliculation of the suture between the
body-whorl and the spire. — J. W. Williams.

Twice-Used Nests.— In the April number of
Science-Gossip, p. 93, Mr. H. G. Ward records
an instance of a blackbird using the same nest for a
second brood immediately after the first had flown.
I had two similar instances lately in my garden.
Both the blackbird and the thrush used the same
nest in the same season for successive broods. The
thrush was successful in rearing both brqods, but the
blackbird was unfortunately interfered with by a cat.
I mentioned the circumstance at the time to Mr.
Seebohm, who said it was very unusual. — J. Joiner
Weir, Beckc7iham.

Rossendale Rhizopods. — In the last paper on
this subject, Fig. 59, 60, 61, should be Anncba
proteus. The names of Figs. 63 and 66 should be
transposed.

Deep Sea Exploration in the Eastern
Mediterranean.— The investigations which the
expedition sent out by the Vienna Academy of
Sciences has been carrying out in the eastern portion
of the Mediterranean have been very successful.
The investigations concerning the depth and general
characteristics of the sea, and the presence of life in
it, were carried out at seventy-two distinct points.
The greatest depth (3700 metres, or over 2J miles),
was found near the great depression which runs
between Molla and Cerigo — a deep valley running
in a direction from north to south, and with a
depth varying from 3500 to 4000 metres, the descent
being much more abrupt on the Greek side than on
the Italian and Sicilian side. Experiments as to
light showed that the waters are more transparent
near the African coast than in the northern portions.
There white metal plates were discernible at a depth
of nearly 144 feet. Sensitive plates were still found
capable of being acted upon by a light at a depth of
nearly 550 yards {2\ furlongs), at a point 200
marine miles north of Ben-Ghazi ; on being drawn
up they were found to have been blackened. The
acid constituents of the sea-water seem to be the
same at the greatest depth as near the surface, nor is
any difference in the quantity of ammoniacal con-
stituents perceptible between the upper and tlie
lowest levels, with the exception that everywhere
close to the bottom the quantity of ammoniacal
ingredients is notable. The deep-sea region of the

Eastern Mediterranean is very poor in animal life.
A dredge at a depth of 3000 metres brought up no
animal specimens at all, but at a depth of 2000
metres leaf-formed algse were discovered similar to
those found at the same depth in the Atlantic by the
Panton expedition.

Ornitholological Notes from Chichester. —
The excessive severity of the past winter, prolonged
almost without intermission, save for a brief respite
of beautiful weather in February, from the close of
November to the beginning of April, caused a
terrible destruction of bird life. Perhaps none have
suffered worse than those sweet songsters the
thrushes {Turdus nmsieus), numbers of which, with
their relatives the redwings {Tardus iliacus), and
fieldfares {Tnrdiis pilaris), died either from cold or
starvation. Swarms of wildfowl visited our shores,
and received, alas ! poor things, in many cases
anything but a hospitable reception ; for, rightly or
wrongly, according to our particular standpoint, I
suppose — though as a member of the Selborne
Society I must enter my protest — the sportsman
embraced what to him was, as all cold winters are,
a golden opportunity for sport. Amongst other
common birds the following were seen, and some
of them shot in the neighbourhood of Chichester
in the months of December and January : Wild
Swans : Hooper [Cygnus musicus'). Of these a
flock of thirty-one was seen off Selsey. Geese :
The common Brent-goose {Bernicla Brenta) has
abounded. Specimens of the bean goose (Ansir
segetum), and of the white-fronted goose [Anser
albifrons), have also occurred. Ducks : Twenty-
eight Sheldrakes {Tadonna cornuta) were observed
together in Chichester Harbour, as well as a number
of tufted ducks {Fuligula cristata), and scaup
ducks [Fuligula marila). Smews : Two smews
{Mergiis albellus) were taken at Fishbourne, and two
or three goosanders [Afergus merganser). Bitterns :
Two bitterns. — One at Fishbourne, and one at
Earnley. The above communication from a capital
sportsman-naturalist will prove interesting to many of
your readers. — Joseph Atiderson,jun., Hon. Curator,
Chichester Museum.

BOTANY.

Variations of Colours in Plants. — In the
Black Mountains on the borders of Monmouth,
Brecon, and Herefordshire, the harebell, and many
other species of bell flowers, grow very profusely.
Some years ago I found a few white harebells in the
Grwyne Fechan Valley. As botanical friends rather
doubted this, during the season of 1890, I paid some
attention to the variations in colour of these flowers.
All through the Black Mountain country the harebell
varies from a reddish purple to a very pale shade of
blue, and white specimens are not infrequently met

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

115

with. Generally, the white harebells look like
washed-out blue ones, with a very faint tinge of blue
and a somewhat sickly appearance. I have, however,
very rarely found a strong growing plant with opaque,
creamy white flower, notably last August one plant
on the N.E. slope of Mynydd Pen y fal, near Aber-
gavenny. These really white harebells almost seem
like a distinct variety. Is not the white harebell
commoner in France than in England ? Anne Pratt
mentions it, giving the popular name, I think, as
"la religieuse des champs;" but I unfortunately
have not her " British Flowering Plants" by me
now. In addition to the plants named by your
correspondent, Mr. H. G. Ward, we found last year
in a lane between Abergavenny and Crickhowell the
common scabious {Knaiitia arvensis) with perfectly
white flowers. In the parish of Henllis, near New-
port, columbines occur in purple, blue, rose pink and
white. The bugle is occasionally found white, and
the common wood sorrel is occasionally red. Around
Newport the common purple orchis (0. Mono),
where it grows in abundance, is always found in four
colours, viz. : purple, coral pink, light coffee colour, or
ecru and white, the lighter colours being the least
frequent and the green lines in the hood being a
striking feature in them. In the,Quantock country, in
Somersetshire, the bee orchis is found with three
white petals. — Thomas Jones, Newport, Mon.

The Post Office and" Botanists. — Would any
brother botanists, who have exchanges with foreign
countries, join me in trying to obtain the same
privileges from the Post Office, as our foreign con-
freres have ? They are able to send their plants here
as " business papers " by the printed matter post,
costing them about 40'. per lb., whereas we have to
pay Parcel Post rate even for a few ounces, or else
letter post rate at 2\d. per \ oz. The lowest rate for
foreign Parcel Post is about \s. 2d., and to the
United States, Letter Post is the' only one we can send
plants by, there being no Parcel Post. From the
States parcels of plants can be sent here at 41/. per lb.,
and the packets may weigh up to 41b. To make a
return exchange, for these we have to pay through the
Parcel Express Companies at about \s. and upwards
per lb. Could not a petition to the Postmaster-
General be got up about this ? I believe that among
the United States postal regulations, there is a special
one regarding the postage of dried plants. — A. E.
Lomax, 56 Vauxhall Road, Liverpool.

Flora of Kent. — With reference to paragraph
on this subject lin April number, p. 90, there is no
complete Flora of the county ; but Cowell's " Floral
Guide to E Kent," "Wild Flowers of Dover and
Neighbourhood," and Jenner's "Flora of Tun-
bridge Wells," may be consulted with advantage.
Also G. Smith's collection of rare plants from S.
Kent, D. Cooper's "Flora Metropolitana," Irvine's
"London Flora," and E. de Crespigny's "New

London Flora for W. Kent," besides the Report of
the Greenwich Natural History Society of the
District between the Rivers Cray, Ravensbourne,
and Thames. Milne and Gordon, N.E., and S.
Kent, 1792 ; and T. Johnston's " Iter," N. Kent. N.
and S. Kent, 1629 and 1632, would be too antiquated
to .be at all useful ; as also would be Petiver's
" Journey from London to Dover," and Blackstone's
" Species ; " but there are many records of later date
to be found in the pages of the " Phytologist," from
1855 to 1862 ; in those of Science-Gossip ;
Exchange and Locality Record Clubs' Reports and
other periodicals; not to mention Watson's "New
Botanist's Guide." Dr. de Crespigny's Handbook
may be procured at Messrs. Allen & Co.'s, Limited,
Waterloo Place. A new edition is ready for the
press, revised, rearranged, and with much additional
matter, itinerary and chart 35 to 40 miles round. —
Ede.

Cuticles of Leaves. — What is the best way of
getting the cuticles of geranium and leaves such as
abutilon, and Cheirattthus incatia so as to mount
them as transparent objects ? Jabez Hogg, in his
work on the Microscope, recommends, p. 440, "im-
mersing the leaf in sulphuric ether," but as his book
was written in 1856 I thought some fresh way might
have been found out since that time. — G. A. Hankey.

A variety of the male fern {Lastrea pseudo-mas)
has been found by Mr. Wilson, of Alford, N.B.,
which is new to botanists. Fronds have been also
examined by Mr. Wollaston, of Chislehurst, who
calls it Lastrea pseudo-mas, var. multiformis, Wilson
(Wol.). The nearest previously-known form to this
was found by the late Mr. Barnes, of Levens, in
Lancashire.

GEOLOGY, &C.

On Phosphatic Chalk at Taplow.— The
following highly important paper was read at the
last meeting of the Geological Society, by Mr.
Strahan. Two beds of brown chalk in an old pit
near Taplow Court owe their colour to a multitude of
brown grains. These grains are almost entirely of
organic origin, foraminifera and shell-prisms forming
the bulk of them. Mr. Player has analysed
specimens of the brown chalk, and finds that it con-
tains from 16 to 35 per cent, of phosphate of lime.
The tests as well as the contents of the foraminifera
seem to have been phosphatized, the phosphate
appearing as a translucent film in the former case,
and as an opaque mass in the latter. In the case of
the prisms of molluscan shells, the whole of the
phosphate appears to be in the opaque form.
Minute coprolites also occur, together with many
small chips of fish-bone, in which Dr. Hinde has
recognized lacunae, while some have been identified

ii6

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SI P.

by Mr. E. T. Newton as portions of fish-teeth. Mr.
Player observes that the phosphate occurs in such a
condition that it would not improbably serve as a
valuable fertilizer, without conversion into super-
phosphate. This condition is probably due to the
partial replacement of carbonate of lime by phosphate
in the organisms. The removal of the remaining
carbonate leaves the phosphate in a honeycombed
state, peculiarly favourable for attack by the acids in
the soil. Mr. Strahan commented upon the resem-
blance of the deposit to the phosphatic chalk with
Bekmnitella qiiadrata which is largely worked in
Northern France, and upon a less striking resem-
blance with that of Ciply, which is at a higher
horizon. In the discussion which followed, Dr. G.
J. Hinde said that he had examined microscopically
the phosphatic chalks of Taplow, and compared it
with the similar material from Douillens and Ciply,
and he fully agreed with Mr. Strahan's description
thereof. The fine, white, powdery portion of the
Taplow rock consisted nearly entirely of Coccoliths,
Discoliths, and Rhabdoliths, unaltered and of car-
bonate of lime similar to those in the normal white
chalk. The minute, translucent, angular fragments
in the granular portion were shown to be pieces of
fish-bone by the occurrence in them of true bone
lacunce and canaliculi, and many were likewise
thickly penetrated by borings of algre or fungi.
Similar fragments were present in the Douillens and
Ciply material, but their osseous nature had not
previously been recognised. The minute phosphatic
pellets were probably coprolites of small fishes. The
evidence pointed to the exuviae of fishes as the source
of the phosphatic materials in these deposits. Mr.
Whitaker said that, from the regularly bedded
character of the phosphatic chalk, one would have
expected it to occur for some distance from the pit ;
but no trace could be seen either of the phosphatic
beds or of the flintless chalk in which they occur.
It seems as if the topmost chalk here occurs only
over a small area, having been eroded elsewhere.
That this was the case to the west and north-west had
been surmised by Mr. Jukes-Browne ("Geology of
London," vol. i. pp. 76-78, 1889), from an examina-
tion of fossils collected from the various pits ; but the
thinning-out of the top chalk seems to be more
sudden than was expected, and not only in the above
directions but all round from Taplow. Mr. Strahan's
discovery showed how much there might remain to be
done, even with regard to so well-known a formation
as the chalk. Professor Judd remarked upon the
interesting nature of the microscopic borings des-
cribed by Dr. Hinde. His attention had been of lata
directed to the subject in connexion with the curious
organisms found in Oolitic grains, both recent and
fossil. Both Mr. G. Murray and Dr. Scott were of
opinion that these borings were produced by the
plants that had been so well described by the dis-
tinguished French algologist, Bornet. A very acute

observer, Mr. F. Chapman, had noticed that shell-
fragments in the gault frequently exhibit these bor-
ings, and Dr. Scott had been able to identify several
of Bornet's genera, founded on recent specimens, as
being represented in these Cretaceous shells. Bornet
believed that these boring algai perform a very im-
portant part in the economy of nature, by bringing
about the destruction and solution of shell-fragments.
The president, alluding to the geological and econo-
mic interest of the discovery described in the paper,
remarked that though the area occupied by the
phosphatic layers seemed to be small, there was good
reason to hope that somewhere else in the Upper-
Chalk districts the same or similar bands might yet
be found. The search for such deposits would now
be stimulated by the information so fully supplied by
the Author, who himself would no doubt follow up
his observations at Taplow by a thorough examina-
tion of the higher members of the chalk in the east
of England.

Note on the Occurrence of Cockroach
Wings in the Coal Measures of the Forest
of Dean. — I am indebted to Mr. Lawe, of Pillston
Penna, for the information that two entire wings and
a fraction of a third were received by him amongst a
collection of fossil plants from the above locality and
horizon, sent by myself. I noticed the specimens
when packing them, but thought them (perhaps new)
fern pinnules. I am in ignorance as to whether these
insects have been recognised before in that locality or
not ; but they are certainly scarce. Of the two
specimens one was possibly the counterpart of the
other. — T. Stock.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Snails as a Cure for Consumption.— In an
old MS. book full of receipts, which were put
together by Robert Sexton, an old excise officer,
about the year 1794, I find the following recipes as
cures for consumption, which show that the snail-
cure was recommended to a later date than we
generally acknowledge by the medical faculty to
the phthisical patients. The first, on the authority of
one. Dr. Simmons, runs' as follows :—" Oysters will
sometimes be beneficial, and so will snails either
swallowed whole or boiled in milk — cow's milk, if
warm from the cow, diluted with one-third of water ;
in general, buttermilk or whey, either from cows or
goats, is far preferable to new milk, but to be bene-
ficial it should be the principal food." The second
recipe, given on no authority, is in the following
words:— "Boil half-a-dozen of red garden snails
every evening in a quart of sweet milk or whey,
then strain the liquor through a coarse cloth and
drink it with sugar every morning gradually upon an
empty stomach, and repeat these draughts for a
month or two if required." This extract goes on to
say that Helix pomatia has been used also for ' ' open
hemorrhoids," by applying "fresh snails" to the
affected part every two or three hours.— y, IV.
Williams,

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP,

iiy

Habits of the Crossbill. — I saw a flock of ten
crossbills feeding in a larch tree at Ballyhyland, co.
Wexford, on the 15th of January. They are rare
visitors here, and these birds allowed me to walk
freely all round and under the tree they were in, for
half-an-hour or so, but the light was so bad that I
failed to get a satisfactory view of their plumage, a
point of such interest in the crossbill. As one of
these crossbills was feeding near the extremity of a
bough, I saw another come hopping to him along
the branch from the end next the trunk. The feeding
bird, seeing the other approach, stopped eating, and
gravely opening his beak took that of his visitor into
his mouth. The two bills were then slowly drawn
apart again, the one crossbill unconcernedly resumed
his eating, and the other hopped away. Some
minutes afterwards I saw the very same process gone
through again. The bird visited was, I am pretty
sure, the same on each occasion ; about the identity
of the visitor I am less clear. The grave demeanour
of the birds was very entertaining to witness. I am
quite at a loss to know the nature of the transaction.
Was it (i) an old bird feeding her young ; (2) a cock
bird feeding his mate (either would be a remarkable
fact, seeing it was the 15th of January, and very
harsh weather); or (3) may we suppose that the
crossbills occasionally suffer inconvenience in feeding
from getting bits of scales impaled on their curiously-
formed mandibles, and that in these emergencies
they come to each other to be relieved. The act, as
I saw it, seemed to me more consistent with this last
explanation. There was not the smallest symptom
of an emotional greeting, a flutter of wings, or a note
of welcome or expectancy, such as usually happens
when a hen bird or a fledgeling of one of our
common species is fed by its mate or parent. It was
clearly a visit of business, regarded by both in the
light of a passing interruption to the routine work of
devouring the larch-cones. — C. B. Aloffat,

Galvanised Wire and Orchids. — I find that
galvanised wire kills orchids. I tied galvanised wire
round some orchids to keep the moss on the roots,
and most of them died, one plant especially I wish to
draw attention. It was a plant of Cattleya crispa in
full growth. To hang the plant up I had a band of
galvanised wire placed round the pot and wire from
this band formed a loop. I must relate that the
plant in question had vigorous roots clinging to the
sides of the pot. All these roots died, and then the
plant. Since then I have taken the galvanised wire
from the pots, etc., and replaced with copper. Since
then the orchids are in better health. — R. Draper.

Bats flying in Sunlight.— On the i6th
February, about ten o'clock on a brilliantly fine and
warm morning, I watched two flitter mice-bats ( Ves-
perugo pipistrellus, Schreb.), for some time. They were
hawking to and fro for the numerous flies that were
abroad. I have never seen bats following their avo-
cations in the bright sunlight before. — J. E. Taylor.

Trees in Trees. — A friend who has had experience
in tree growing tells me that a young tree, as for
instance an elm, grows much more rapidly when
planted inside a hollow tree, say an elm, than under
any other conditions. Looking to the quantity of
decaying vegetable matter from which the roots of the
young tree derive part of its nutriment, this does not
seem at all improbable. — T. S.

Dead Thrushes in Rabbit-Holes.— Seven dead
thrushes were taken from a rabbit-hole at Aust,
Glos., into which they had retired to die during the
iate severe weather. Several birds that were picked

up dead from starvation, were difticult to skin, just
skin and bone, light as a feather.— 7". S.

Cuticle of Leaves.— Could any of your
readers inform me the best method of taking off the
cuticle of leaves of Scolopendrium, petals of the
Geranium, &c., so as to make them as transparent
objects for the microscope? I am told that
"nitric acid, diluted with half water, is the old-
fashioned way. Could any one inform me of the new-
fashioned, or any better way ? "—George A. Hankey,
Town Court Farm, Tutibridge Wells.

Strange Conduct of a Squirrel.— One day in
October last, as I was walking through the Phoenix
Park, Dublin, I came suddenly on a remarkable sight.
A reddish animal was careering in rapid circles
around a wood pigeon which was stationed on the
ground, and which, in a dazed fashion, kept turning
slowly round and round to watch the whirligig
performance : in fact, the procedure was almost
exactly that which I have seen when a stoat, before
killing a rabbit, proceeds to mesmerise it by cutting
circles round it, except that the stoat accompanies his
circles by wonderful somersaults, which were lacking
on the present occasion. The wood-pigeon's beha-
viour was almost an exact repetition of the rabbit's.
Arriving so suddenly on the scene, I unluckily
startled the principal performer, who stopped ; and,
to my surprise, I then saw that it was a squirrel ! The
bird was at first so utterly bewildered that it was
several seconds before she sufficiently recovered to fly
away. When at last the wood -pigeon had flown off,
and not till then, the squirrel also left the scene, and
betook himself up a tree. It would be interesting to
know whether such conduct on a squirrel's part has
been noticed before, and what would have been the
upshot to the affair had it not been interrupted? Is
it to be supposed that the squirrel intended to kill
the ring-dove ? — Hugh H. Moffat.

"Two Sides of the Medal"— With reference
to the note (p. 71) by Mr. Bird, it is only fair to what
seems the only scientific school of evolutionists to
state (without hazarding any personal opinion), that
it is only those acquired characters which affect the
whole organism, and more especially the reproductive
elements, that are deemed transmissile to the off-
spring. The case cited, therefore, of the two men
A. and B., one born with big muscular limbs and the
other not, is hardly to the point, at least without
some further exposition. The other case C. and D.
is completely outside the mark as it were. The
destruction of thumbs is not necessarily attended
with any disturbance of the genital organs ; and,
therefore, the most fervent Lamarkian would freely
admit that D.'s children would be just as likely to
have thumbs as those of^any one else. It may be
useful to append that the well-known researches of
Brown-Sequard on the effects of lesions of guinea-
pigs, etc., have not been, as far as I am aware, been
very destructively analysed or explosively bombarded
by any subsequent critic or experimentalist. —
P. Q. R.

Natural History Vandalism. — Whilst regret-
ting the deplorable sacrifice of bird-life, and the
approaching extirpation of the most interesting
species, it is painful to find this mischief ascribed by
certain journals to naturalists. The destroyers of
birds are bird-nesters, bird-dealers and their emis-
saries, suburban louts who go out on Sundays and
holidays, and blaze away at everything clad in
feathers. Nor must we forget ignorant farmers, who
have latterly taken to destroying that purely insectiv-

ii8

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

orous bird the cuckoo, and infatuated game-keepers
who shoot down the owls, our best mouse-catchers.
—y. W. Slater.

Spiders' Webs. — Some time ago I heard a state-
ment to the effect that " spiders are unable to make
more than four webs during their life-time ; and that
should the fourth be destroyed the spider is hence-
forth dependent on outward circumstances entirely
for a home and its food." I have not been able to
find any corroboration of the above statement, and
should esteem it a favour if some reader will be able
to prove or disprove the above. — B. Truscott.

The Marking of Wild Birds' Eggs at the
Smaller End. — Why are so very few of the eggs
of our wild birds which have variegated markings
found to be prominently coloured at the smaller end ?
The answer to this question is by no means a simple
one, and comprises almost endless complications and,
indeed, can at best be but indefinite, for this reason,
none of our zoologists seemed to have worked out
the glands containing the colouring matter of the
eggs. So, of course, it is only possible to theorise.
In the first place, it would be a sheer physical im-
possibility, as some people have supposed, for the
egg to be turned completely round in the oviduct, it
is far too tightly wedged for any gyration of the bird
to accomplish such a thing. And, again, this latter
theory would imply that the egg usually came down
the oviduct with the larger end pointing first, so that
it received the bulk of the colouring matter ; but
this is quite a misleading idea, for it is, with rare
exceptions, the smaller end of the egg which points
to the exterior, and not the larger. " Why, then,
does not the smaller end of the egg, in the majority
of cases, receive the bulk of the colour, instead of
the larger? " The answer is not very difficult to find.
The larger end of the egg, although coming down after
the smaller, naturally irritates and distends the colour-
secreting glands more than the latter, and therefore
receives the bulk of the markings. But why the eggs
of the falconidse and of the corvidae should be more
prone to have small end markings than the majority
of other birds is a much more difficult question to
answer. It seems to me, and probably many others
have also noticed it, that those eggs which most
usually exhibit distinct and prominent small end-
markings, are those which either have the colour
distributed in large blotches over the surface, or are
those which vary a great deal in both ground colour
and markings, as the eggs of the corvidos most
certainly do. In many cases of eggs marked with
large blotches of colour, it is almost impossible to
say they are not marked on the smaller end, they are
so diffusely and profusely marked all over. Of
course there are exceptions to every rule, and it
would be impossible to lay down a law confining the
small end-colouring of eggs to any particular group
of eggs. I have, for instance, in my own collection,
specimens of the rook, crow, sparrow-hawk, red-
backed shrike, yellow bunting and chaffinch, all very
distinctly marked on the smaller end, and all perfectly
normal in shape, except that of the chaffinch. I feel
that much more might and ought to be written on
this subject, and I hope that someone will offer more
satisfactory explanation of this freak of nature, than
I am able to do. — K. H. Jones.

Power of the Limnid.-k to resist Cold. —
On the breaking up of the late frost I was examining
the thick ice on a large stone trough used by me as
an outdoor aquarium, when I observed a large
number of shells embedded in it. I removed some
large blocks and allowed them to melt slowly, after-

wards straining the water and placing the shells in
a glass. There were a few examples of Pisidiiim
pitsillum, all dead ; Limna: pcrcgra and Z. stagnalis
were in large numbers, all young examples, ready to
crawl as soon as they dropped from the block of ice ;
Plajiorbis corneiis and PI. complajiatiis were also
found in quantity, mostly young examples and all
living. As the water had been frozen over for six
weeks, it is probable that the greater number of these
animals has been at least a month in a solid block of
ice. — W. A. Gain, Tux/ord, Newark.

Birds and the Cold Weather. — Owing to
the cold weather, no doubt our native English birds
have suffered greatly. But perhaps readers would be
interested in hearing that I have seen not only a
great variety of birds in the garden, but all of which are
enumerated here since the frost. They are : — wood-
pecker, nuthatch, great, little, and blackcap tit, bull-
finch, goldfinch, greenfinch, chafiinch, wagtail, siskin,
yellow and reed bunting, owl, tree, house, and
hedge sparrows, tree creeper, gold-crested, common,
and willow wrens, the mischievous jay, wood-pigeon,
and the common blackbird and starling ; but not a
single thrush, which seems about the only kind of bird
affected by the cold. — Frederick W. Freeman, IVkiiweU,
Norwich.

Extraordinary Entomological Discovery.
— Mr. A. S. Canham, of Crowland, has discovered a
peacock butterfly beneath a layer of gravel at
Crowland, some 20 feet in thickness, in a peat bed.
Mr, Canham was desirous of seeing the vegetable
formation in this bed, and for this purpose cut out a
brick of the peat. He then broke it open, and
immediately a butterfly flew out ! He captured the
butterfly, and it lived for about a fortnight after-
wards. Mr Canham supposed that the butterfly was
in the peat at the time the gravel was brought down
and thus sealed the bed. When the gravel was
removed the air penetrated the peat, and the process
of incubation was set up ; the breaking of the cake
of peat admitting more air, promoted the final
development of the butterfly, and it flew out. An
indentation in the peat coincides with the existence
of a chrysalis there, but the shell is lost. The peat
and butterfly were exhibited by Mr. Canham before
the Peterborough Natural History Society. — Grimsby
News.

Curious Beliefs. — With reference to a " curious
belief" among the natives of county Mayo (Science-
Gossip for April, p. 75), I noted a few weeks since a
fact which seems to me to bear on the case of the
man who ate salmon for a fortnight, and became
apparently waterproof. A favourite cat of mine
became suddenly very ill, almost unconscious for
some days. A veterinary surgeon who saw it, advised
us to feed it partly on cod-liver oil ; it took about a
teaspoonful a day for about two days. By that time
its fur, which it never licked or cleaned in any way,
became remarkably glossy, and smelt strongly of the
oil. May not the oil in the salmon-flesh have a
similar result in the case of the fisherman ?

Rise of Sap. — I asked a farmer of considerable
experience yesterday if he agreed with Mr. Reeves's
theories on the ascent or descent of sap. He did
not ; and adduced the following case, which not long
since occurred on his farm. Elms, he said, are gross
feeders. If they are in a hedgerow near hops they
send up suckers into the hop-gardens, choosing
especially the "hills "or hop-plants, which are the
most manured. A large mixen had been placed
beside a farm-road, about ten feet from a row of

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

119

elms. It was left untouched for six months, and when
cleared away was found to be pierced through and
through with elm-roots. Does this make for or against
Mr. Reeves's theory ?

Query as to Egg. — Will any of the oological
readers of Science-Gossip kindly tell me the name
of the following egg, taken in this district two years
ago? In size and appearance it exactly resembles
that of the moorhen, but the nest was built on the
ground, like that of the plover, and contained only
two eggs. The bird, which I saw several times, was
like an ordinary blue pigeon. A friend of mine took
several eggs of the same kind, and he informs me
that they are quite new to him. — G. Dixon.

Fungus on Eggs. — If T. Brown, who complains
of fungus in his eggs, will rinse each egg out with a
solution of one teaspoonful of corrosive sublimate in
a quart of alcohol or methylated spirits, inserted by
means of a glass bulb suction-pipe, or a small glass
syringe, and expelled with an ordinary blow-pipe,
his eggs will never in future be troubled by fungus
or anything else of a similar nature. The eggs will
be right for ever in any climate or conditions, except
in the matter of breakage and such like casualties.
The solution mentioned must be used with care, it
being a very strong poison.

Second Growth of Raspberries. — The fol-
lowing extract from my diary of last year may
possibly interest some of your readers : — "November
19th, observed in the garden of Mr. Young, at Monge-
ham, near Deal, a second growth of raspberries, ripe
and luscious as summer-grown ones." I may add
that the garden lies high and exposed and was a few
days after covered with snow, the first token of the
hard winter which followed. — J. Wallis, Deal.

Young Birds and their Nests. — Some friends
of mine have had an argument about young birds
leaving their nest. The point is this : Do young
birds, alter taking their first flight, finally leave the
nest, or do they return to it as a temporary shelter
until they are strong enough to forage for them-
selves?— y. E. Gore.

Local Plant and Bird-Names from North-
MARSTON, Bucks. — Cuckoo, early purple orchis ;
smellsmock, icuckoo flower or ladysmock ; crazies,
marsh marigold, lesser celandine ; blind-eyes, scarlet
poppy. [The scarlet poppy received the name of
blind-eyes no doubt, from the superstition, that if
you got it near to your eyes, or touched your eyes
with your hands after gathering it, it would blind
you, a belief still prevalent in this village, and else-
where. Children are cautioned by their parents
"not to gather it, for it will blind your eyes," they
say. This common saying makes them rather afraid
to gather this flower, and thus the pretty scarlet
petals of the poppy are left alone to fall, or to be
scattered by the wind.] Cows and calfs, cuckoo
pint or arum ; moons, moon daisy, white ox-eye ;
halfsmart, yellow bedstraw ; kingfingers, bird's-foot
trefoil ; bird's-eye, germander speedwell. [The name
bird's-eye was no doubt given to the germander
speedweed by our ancestors, who thought that the
flower resembled the eye of a bird.] Celery (or
salery), common sorrel. [The leaves of the common
sorrel, and the fruits of the mallow are eaten by the
children here. The local name of the former flower
is perhaps a corruption of the word salad, and the
latter name of " cheeses " is from the form of the
fruit or seed, which is round and resembles the form
of a complete cheese.] Cheeses, mallow (fruit of

the) ; gill-run-the-ground, ground ivy. [The local
name of the ground ivy was given to it, from its
spreading or running habits over the ground.] Bull-
rush, great reedmace ; bindweed, large convolvulus ;
combine, small convolvulus ; woodbine, honeysuckle.
[The local names of the convolvulus (major and
minor) and the honeysuckle, needs no explanation, as
the derivation of their names is quite clear.] Horse-
mint, common mint ; burweed, common goosegrass
or cleavers ; mayweed, corn feverfew ; pussy cat,
catkin of willow ; willow-weed, periscaria ; pigeon
felt, fieldfare ; redwing felt, redwing ; gor-crow,
carrion crow ; thresher or thrusher, song-thrush ;
then (or fen) thresher, missel-thrush ; water wash-
disher, water wagtail ; yellow wash-disher, yellow
wagtail ; chink and chinkchawdy, chaffinch ; dicky,
common wren ; heakle or heekle, green woodpecker ;
redtail, redstart ; peewit, lapwing ; haybirds, white-
throat (major and minor ) ; mollyherne and moUern,
heron ; woodpigeon, ring-dove ; screech owl, tawny
owl ; bumbarrel, longtailed-tit ; green linnet, green-
finch ; cuckoo's mate, wryneck. — H. G. Ward.

Parrots and their Eggs. — A pair of East-
Indian tinged parrokeets laid six eggs on alternate
days on the bare bottom of a large cage (having
refused to use various offered conveniences to nest
in) ; sat twenty-eight days ; hatched three, perfectly
free from any sort of down. When twenty-one days
old, down began to appear, and eyes became partially
opened. Owing to their habit of crawling about the
cage, two have been killed, but the third (now four
weeks old) is well and strong. The parent birds are
evidently preparing to lay again. — B. L. Hooper,

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised ADVERTisEMENTS,for the purposeof evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous
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We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To OUR Recent Exchangers. — We are willing and helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

J. Hunt. — The bound vol. of Science-Gossip for 1872 is out
of print, but the publishers can supply you with all the parts
for that year, except January.

H. W. D.— Apply to Mr. Geo. Dowker, F.G.S., Stour-
mouth House, near Wingham, Kent, for information respecting
the " South-Eastern Naturalist."

A. Mayfield. — The fossil tooth imbedded in flint is that of
a species of Lamna.

EXCHANGES.

Exchange for minerals, &c., good transparent crystals of
selenitc (various forms), some remarkable in having taken up
sand during crystallisation. — W. Gamble, 2 West Street, New
Brompton, Kent.

SciENCE-Gossip, 1885 to 1890, complete, with 23 coloured

120

HARD WICKE' S S CIENCE- G OSS I P.

plates: 1880, March and April missing; 18S1, September
missing; 1884, January, February, March, and April missing.
Also "The Naturalist," 1889 and 1890, all unbound, but clean.
Wanted, large flat glass-topped boxes for shells in cabinets. —
Lionel E. Adams, Penistone, Yorks.

Eighty species of British shells, entomological setting-
cabinet, collecting-box and store case, to exchange for any-
thing useful. — "Lindens," New Brompton, Kent.

A QUANTITY of duplicate mounts of very choice and rare
foraminifera, correctly named, in exchange for cabinet speci-
mens of Alston Moor minerals, or works on freshwater and
marine algae, or offers. — W. H. Harris, 42 St. Brannock's
Road, Ilfracombe.

British birds' eggs. A long series, all with data, such as
osprey, hooded merganser, eagle, sooty tern, long-billed
curlew, bufT-backed heron, capercailie, &c., will exchange for
insect cabinet. Several dozen N. American bird skins (dated),
fine condition, for exchange. Offers to — H. T. Booth, Upcerne
Road, Chelsea.

Wanted, vol. of Science-Gossip for 1872, bo\md in blue
cloth, if possible. Please name price, &c. — John Hunt, Lilly-
burn Print Works, Milton of Campsie, near Glasgow.

Wanted, unmounted parasites, polycistines, and other good
material, in exchange for choice micro-slides of every descrip-
tion. Foreign correspondence solicited. — K. Suter, 5 High-
week Road, Tottenham, Middlesex, England.

What offers for cork setting-boards, zinc collecting-boxes
for larva, and light insect collecting-boxes, also Nos. 240-280
of SciENCE-Gossii'? Micro-slides or material preferred, or
books. — W. E. Watkins, 30 Dalmeny Road, Tufnell Park, N.
». Exchange chemical apparatus — retort stands, tripods, glass
tubing, corks, crucibles, &c., for fossils, minerals, or rocks. —
J. A. Ellis, I Pomona Place, Fulham, S.W.

Over one hundred species of beautifully-mounted ferns,
comprising most of the rare British sorts (some very rare), in
handsome half-bound book, fitting into strong case. What
offers? — Joseph Anderson, jun., Aire Villa, Chichester.

Offered, fifty Scottish mosses, a few very rare ones, all
named ; will send list. Will take a copy of Hobkirk's " British
Mosses," second edition. — Thomas Wilson, 39 North Church
Street, Dundee.

Offered, British marine shells in exchange for micro-slides,
insects, other shells not in collection, or any books on natural
history. Send lists of wants and duplicates to — W. D. Rae,
9 Claremont Terrace, Alpha Road, Milwall, London, E.

Wanted, Goebel's "Outlines of Classification and Special
Morphology of Plants." Exchange Benson's " New Testa-
ment," or classical and scientific works, &c. — J. Wallis, Deal.

For exchange, twenty back numbers of Sciench-Gossip,
also "Naturalist's Gazette," complete, for 1889 and 1890.
Wanted, minerals or fossils, or books on minerals or fossils, or
what offers? — William Hetherington, Nenthead, Alston Moore,
Carlisle.

Offered, a platinum crucible with capsule cover, Beale's
" How to Work with the Microscope," and Cruickshank's
"Practical Bacteriology." Wanted, i-inch objective, or 2-inch
B, C, or D eye-piece, double nose-piece, or offers in petno-
logical slides. — R. M. H. St. Stephen, 25 Fordwych Road,
West Hampstead, London, N.W.

Several hundred British coleoptera for exchange, all carded,
correctly named and in fine. condition, including many rare and
local species. Wanted, offers of any natural history specimens,
apparatus, and books on entomology, conchology, or geologj'. —
A. Ford, Claremont House, Upper Tower Road, St. Leonard's-
on-Sea, Sussex.

Wanted, British diptera, named or unnamed, foreign cole-
optera, or cabinet cork, in exchange for S. African insects of
any order. — R. M. Lightfoot, 134 Bree Street, Cape Town,
S. Africa.

Would any botanist join me in a three v;eeks' botanical
expedition to the Sierra Nevada, Granada, in July next?
Address — A. Edward Lomax, 56 Vauxhall Road, Liverpool.

Offered, H. erictorum, vz.x. /aservata, H. va7-iegata, H.
caperatay H. ni/escens, H. rotundaia, Z. alleoura, C. nigosa,
L.peregra, var. acuminata, and others. Wanted, H. poiitatia,
Paludina vivipara, P. liiteri, Acme fusca, or others not in
collection. — James Ingleby, Eavestone, Ripon.

British cryptogams — mosses, seaweeds, lichens, and fungi,
correctly named, in exchange for foreign land shells.— T. Rogers,
27 Oldham Road, Manchester.

Pupa ringens, P. >narginata, and var. edentula, V. pygmcra,
V.pusilla, K. antivertigo, B. perversa, C. tridens, Z./nhms,
Z. cryslallinus, H. pulchella, //. lapicida, S. rivicola, /'.
glaber, P. dilatatus, and many others, offered for foreign land
shells, or Testacella haliotidea, S. virescens, S. oblonga, H.
revelata, P. seca'u, C. biplicata, A. acic-ula, or good vars. of
H. nsmoralis and hortensis. — E. Collier, i Heather Bank,
Moss Lane East, Manchester.

Will exchange fifty flint implements for minerals or fossils.
— W. Nunney, 29 St. Philip's Road, Dalston, N.E.

Wanted, latest edition of the "Student's Flora" (Hooker).
Apply to — John Connor, Elderslie, near Johnstone, N.B.

Wanted, a small collection of British mosses and lichens ;
fossils given in exchange. — A. Tarver, 34 Croydon Grove,
West Croydon.

Will exchange micro-slides for works on microscope, 01
exchange slides lor others. — Piatt, Eastrop, Basingstoke.

Wanied, good specimens of Littorina obtusata, var. ornata.
Will give Bulimtis acutus, var. bizona.— V^eM. H. Milnes,
Winster, Derby.

Offered, Scalaria clathraUtla, Venerupis iris, Mytilus
edulis, var. pallida, Cyclostrema cutlerianum, C. serpuloidcs,
Spirialis retroversus, Eulima bilineata, E. distorta, E.polita,
Odostotnia interstincta, O. spiralis, O. nivosa, Adeorbis sub-
carinaius, Rissoa Zetlandica, R. calathus, R fulgida, Skenea
planorbis, Pleurobranchus membranacea, and other rare shells.
Wanted in exchange, any of the following: — Trophon barvu-
censis, Natica helicoides, Leda caudata, Pholadida- papyracea,
Clio pyramidata, Aplysia depilans, Fusus /enestratus, Triton
cutaceus, Pleurotoma striolata, P. nivalis, Jeffreysia globu-
laris. Area pectenculoides, Odostomia /enestratus, O. dia-
phana, O. minima, Aclis Walleri, A. gvlsonig, Velutina
plicatilis,^ Janthina exigtta, Buccinum Humphrey sianum,
Nassa nitida, Cylichna nitidula. Vertigo Moulinsiana, V.
pusilla, and Pecten niveus. Lists exchanged ; correspondence
invited.— A. J. R. Sclater, M.C.S., 23 Bank Street, Teign-
mouth, S. Devon.

Wanted, second-hand machine for preparing slides of rocks
for microscope. Exchange in fossils, rocks, shells, books, &c. —
Rev. John Hawell, Ingleby Grcenhow Vicarage, Northallerton.

Wanted, rock and diatom slides, trilobites, coal ferns from
coal-measures, also British and foreign stamps, in exchange for
rare marine, land and freshwater shells, and microscopic
objects, &c. — T. E. Sclater, Bank Street, Teignmouth.

Wanted, unbound, the "Zoologist" for 1880, and for
January and February, 1881. State condition and price.—
Chas. Oldham, Ashton-on-Mersey.

I have Meyer's " Modern Theories of Chemistry," Foster
and Balfour's "Embryology," Howe's "Biological Atlas," and
MacAIpine's "Zoological Atlas." Will any one give me geo-
logical literature, fossils, minerals, rock-slides, or botanical
slides in exchange? — Wilmore, Trawden, Lancashire.

Offered, Zonites e.xcavatus, Ancylus lacustris, Helix
pygmiFa, and many others. Wanted, Helix 7temoralis, vars.
castanea, olivacea, roseolabiata, albolabiata, hyaloyonata,
also vars. (named) of many other land shells. — A. Hartley,
8 Cavendish Road,' Idle, near Bradford, Yorkshire.

Larv.*:, pupa, and imagos of Tussur silk moth (Mylitta),
and American moth (Promethea), for exchange. Wanted,
exotic pupse of imagos of moths, butterflies, or beetles. — Mark
L. Sykes, Eldon Place, Patricroft, near Manchester.

Wanted, a cheap second-hand microscope, with one eye-
piece ; no objectives needed; rack motion and fine screw
adjustment, with case. Send particulars to — Rev. A. C. Smith,
Crowboro C^ross, Sussex, or state requirements.

Collection of British .coleoptera, in four cases, on cards,
first-class setting, about 200 species, four in a series. Exchange
photographic apparatus, or offers. — F. Emsley, 98 West Street,
Leeds.

To osteologists. Offered, jaws or beak of parrot fish (can
supply part of spiny skin), also beak of albatross. Will ex-
change for a few exotic shells. — W. Jones, jun., 27 Mayton
Street, Holloway, London, N.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.

" Botany, a Concise Manual for Students," by Alex. John-
stone (London and Edinburgh: Young J. Pentland). — "The
Medical Annual, 1891." — "The Fishes of North America,"
Part I.— "British Cage Birds," |Part 12.— "The Spectrum,"
No. 2, Vol. I. — "Annual Report of Museum of American
Archaeology." — " Memoir and Letters of Sydnev Gilchrist
Thomas," by R. W. Burnie (London : John Murr.iy). —
" Plochionus and Scymnus," by I. iC. Duffy. — "The Essex
Naturalist," July to September. — Wesley's "Nat. Hist, and
Scientific Book Circular." — " American Microscopical Journal."
—" American Naturalist." — " Canadian Entomologist." — "The
Naturalist." — "The Botanical Gazette." — "The Gentleman's
Magazine." — "The Midland Naturalist." — " Feuille des
Jeunes Naturalistes.' — "The Microscope." — " Nature Notes."
— "The Naturalist's Annual and Directory for 1891."—
"Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South
Wales," &c., &c.

Communications received up to the ioth ult. from :
H. W. D.— E. B.— W. G.— L. E. A.— J. S.— W. H. H.—
F. W. F.— W. S.— L. E. A.-W. G.— H. G. D.— I. G.—
J. E. L.— G. W. R.— H. T. B.— W. I. S.-Dr. A. C— Dr. A. I.
—J. J. W.— B. W.— F. C. B.— G. A. H.— W. E. W.— R. S.—
J. H.— H. W. D.— M. E. P.— J. A. E.— R. C— E. E.—
W. W. R.— T. W.— J. E. L.— J. A., jun.— H. M— W. H —
A. T.— W. E.— T. E. S.— A. J. R. S.— T. R.— W. H. N—
J. C— W. J.— I. W. M.— I. W.-G. D.— R. de H. S. S.—
M. E. T.— W. J. A— J. I.— R. M. L.— T. J.— A. F.— H. P.
—A. E. L.— E. C— J. W.— W. A.— J. H.— H. G. W.— A. H.
— H. E. G.— S. P.— J. E. G.— M. L. S.— A. W.— A. C. S.—

E. de C— F. E.— C. 0.— G. A. H.-B. L. H.— J. W. W.—

F. J. B.— H. W. B.— A, M.-&C., &c

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

121

THE SHELL-COLOURING OF NON-MARINE MOLLUSCA.

By WILFRED MARK WEBB, F.L.S.

HE theory brought
forward by Mr.
J. W. Williams*
with regard to the
primitive colouring
of non-marine shells
has already been
discussed at length
by Mr. S. Facet
and Mr. C. Clare
Fryer, % but the
latter writer has
brought forward
some very interest-
ing points, and Mr.
Williams's § reply
to the former critic
calls for further re-
marks.

Mr. Pace gives
an example of the want of clearness which he finds
in Mr. Williams's writing ; it can, however, be
said, in favour of the latter, that authors even less
lucid were quoted from, by the present writer in
"The Universal Review." || The meaning of the
passage in question is, that "evolution of all kinds"
has been from the simple to the complex. It is
only necessary to bring forward the case of parasites
in order to show the fallacy of such a statement, for,
in many instances, although they had arrived at a
stage of considerable differentiation before contracting
their peculiar habits, they have since evolved in a
downward direction. Mr. Williams gives it to be
understood, in the concluding paragraph of his article,
that he has studied Darwin's works, but in "The

• "The Colouring and Banding in Land and Freshwater
Shells," Science-Gossip, August, 1890, p. 178.

t "The Colouring and Banding of Freshwater Shells,"
Science-Gossip, October, 1890, p. 233.

X "The Colouring and Banding in Land and Freshwater
Shells," Science-Gossip, November, 1890, p. 241.

C Ibid. Science-Gossip, December, 1890, p. 274.

11 "The Zoology of the Magazines," "Universal Review,"
October, 1890, p. 2^0.

No. 318.— June 1891.

Origin of Species "* considerable space is given to dis-
cussing evolution "from the complex to the simple,"
and the following words occur : — " for natural selec-
tion, or the survival of the fittest, does not necessarily
include progressive development."

To turn now to the various paragraphs in which
the facts supposed by Mr. Williams, to support his
theory, are set forth :

(i.) With regard to the constitution of the primary
shell : — either Mr. Pace has some authority, with
which the writer is unacquainted, for saying that it
consists of conchyclin, or he has taken for granted
that the tissue which forms this substance in the
second instance, did so in the first. Has anybody
analysed the primary shell ? By-the-bye, the passage
quoted from Balfour's ' Embryology ' in Mr. Williams's
reply occurs on page 189 (not on page 229 as stated).
But in quibbling over chitin and conchyclin Mr.
Williams misses the crucial point of the criticism, to
wit, that as the substance of the primary shell is
" naturally horn-coloured" it can have no bearing,
in the matter of colouring, on the calcareous pigmen-
ted secondary shell, to the animal part of which it
alone can possibly be compared.

(2). Even, allowing for a moment, that no pigment
occurs in the very young secondary shell, one would
not expect to find significant bands developed before
the animal is free-living or while it is so small that
shell-markings would apparently make no difference
to it,

(3.) In his first article on the subject under con-
sideration, Mr. Wilhams evidently meant to say that
the majority of fresh-water Pulmonates were " horn-
coloured and bandless." With regard to his reply, it
must be said that it is not the part of a sane man to
require from a questioner the "proofs of his state-
ment." It would appear, that all Mr. Pace meant by
asking how "environmental conditions" could be
"less in water than on land" was to point out that
the application of the adjective "less" to such a

* "The Ori^n of Species," by Charles Darwin, F.R.S.,
6th edition, p. 98.

122

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

noun as " conditions " is not good English, and that
the phrase as it stands means nothing. Mr. Williams
no doubt intended to convey the principle contained
in the following passage from Darwin : —

"All fresh-water basins taken together make a
small area, compared with that of the sea or land.
Consequently the competition between fresh-water
productions will have been less severe than else-
where, new forms will have been then more slowly
produced and old forms more slowly exterminated."*
(4.) Mr. Fryer's argument that white cannot be an
advance in colour, is very good, and there are
instances in which colour must have preceded
albinism. Mr. Poulton thus speaks of the case of the
albino peacock : —

"The regions in which 'structural' colours
usually appear are readily recognisable, the white
being of a different quality, the ' eyes ' on the train
coming out like a white damask table-cloth.

' ' Doctor Gadow informs me that the same fact is
true of white ducks and drakes, the wing coverts,
which are blue in normally pigmented individuals, ex-
hibiting a peculiar sheen or gloss differing from the
rest of the plumage. Doctor Gadow states that the
structural colours are absent because the existence of
a pigment beneath is necessary in order to show them
off; and he points out that the ancestors of birds
with such structural colours cannot well have been
white because the effect depends in part upon pig-
ment."!

(5.) There are in the writer's collection specimens
of Helix rufescens in which the nucleus is of a darker
brown than the rest of the shell.

Most specimens which he possesses of Helix arbus-
torum, H. nemoralis, //. hortcnsis, H. aspcrsa and
H. Pomatia have a nucleus agreeing in colour with
the " ground-tint " of the shell, thus in yellow, buff
or brown examples of Helix nemoralis the apical
whorl is correspondingly yellow, buffer brown.

Specimens of Helix Fisana from Tenby, Jersey,
Guernsey and South Portugal have nuclei of a very
dark brown colour, approaching black.

Of Helix virgata, H. ericetorinn, H. caperata and
H. acuta the nucleus is brown, corresponding in
colour with the bands. "White specimens of H.
Pisana, H virgata and H ericetorum are also in the
writer's possession which have no bands developed?
but which nevertheless, retain the dark brown
nucleus.

(6.) This paragraph depends on No. 4. The case
of albino individuals of banded Helices is analogous
to that of the white peacock which shows the " eyes "
on its train, for in normal specimens of these snails
the colours of the bands are accompanied by
structural peculiarities in the shell, and in albino

* "The Origin of Species," by Charles Darwin, F.R.S.,
6th edition, p. 83.

t "The Colours of Animals," by E. B. Poulton, F.R.S.,
note on p. 329.

forms the areas normally pigmented are marked by
transparent zones. Therefore the whiteness is not
a primary but a secondary feature.

(7.) Although Mr. Williams seems to have the
best of the argument with regard to the immediate
derivation of Cyclostoma elegatis, it must be pointed
out that the occurrence of this shell in Pleistocene
fresh-water deposits is no argument in favour of his
view, for truly, terrestrial forms abound in such
deposits,"" that its colours no more support the theory
than do those of the Helices. The SuccinecB can
hardly be called fresh-water species !

(8.) What Mr. Fryer says with regard to the
colours of the Hyalinia: and Helices can in eveiy way
be endorsed by the present writer, who has given
his attention to the subject for some years, and hopes
to soon publish his conclusions with the evidence on
which they are founded.

(9.) It is very probable that bands represent
coalesced spots, the stripes of mammals in several
cases undoubtedly originate in this way, but some of
the species which Mr. Williams mentions, such as
H. aspersa and H. virgata (other snails. Helix Pisana,
H. acuta and H vcrinicidata may be added) which
have bandssome times represented by dots,t have only
gained this style of marking secondarily, after the
bands had already been evolved, for the apparent
breaking up of the bands on these shells is due to the
presence of striag which really only obscure the band
underlying them. The writer has tested this by
cutting sections of the shell of Helix aspersa, also by
scraping off the prominences from the same species
and from H. vermiadata, and has since found that,
Mr. Charles Ashford calls attention to this point. J
Mr. Ashford is perhaps one of " the few who have
published their thoughts on this matter," but whose
names are not given by Mr. Williams.

(10.) On taking into consideration the passage
from Darwin quoted in No, 3, Mr. Williams's
meaning will become clearer.

(11.) Mr. Fryer's references go to show that
field-naturalists are not all of Mr. Williams's opinion
with regard to the enemies of the genus Hyalinia.
Paul Fischer, it may be noted, puts this genus with
the Limacidse not with the Helicidffi as does Mr.

Pace.

The criticisms as yet offered on Mr. Williams's
paper have necessarily dealt not so much with his
theory as with the facts supposed to support it. That
these facts have little or no bearing on the matter, is
the conclusion that has been arrived at, and it is not
difficult to point out the weakness of the theory
itself. The manner in which the shell of the marine
ancestors of the land and fresh-water molluscs was

* " The Pleistocene (Non-Marine) IMoUusca of the London
District," by B. B. Woodward, F.G.S., F.R.M.S., &c.,
" Proc. Geol. Assoc." vol. xi., No. 8 (iSgo).

+ "Darwinism," by A. R. Wallace, LL.D., F.S.S., p. 289.

% " The Journal of Conchology," vol. iii., pp. 84-98.

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

123

developed must be taken into consideration. The
three assertions are (a) that the shell was originally
"horn-coloured;" (/3) that, secondly, it was white;
(7) that bands arose as spots. The last head has
been sufficiently discussed.

(o) If it be assumed that the shell was at first
represented only by animal substance such as is
produced in the shell-i;land, it would certainly be
horn-coloured — but this is arguing in a circle.

[&) If this primitive shell became calcareous it is
likely that its appearance, owing to its containing
little carbonate of lime, would be whitish or semi-
transparent — but it would not be homologous with
the secondary shell, or assuming that the secondary
shell arose in this way, the white flecks which occur
in the shells of Limna-a are at any rate more likely
to be a reversion to the more completely calcified
shell of their marine ancestors, than a survival of a
primitive whiteness, the tenuity of the shells :of the
Basommatophora having been acquired apparently
in their present environment.

BOTANICAL NOTES FROM KEMSING AND
ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

BEING anxious to call the attention of those
interested in the local flora of England, I have
collected a few notes this last summer on the flowering
plants around Kemsing, and its neighbourhood, which
may prove useful to some botanist. Kemsing, a tiny
rural village, nestles on the slope of a long range of
chalk hills, which stretch for many miles above the
villages of Otford, Kemsing, Wrotham, and others,
through that part of Kent known as " the Garden of
Kent." It is the district along these hills of which I
particularly wish to speak. Without exception, it is
the most prolific spot for wild plants with which I
have ever met.

ITie common plants — lovers of chalky soil — such
as %vild marjoram, field scabious {Kiiautia arvettsis),
£upkrasia officinalis, Scabiosa cohimbaria, Erythrtza
centaiirium, CJilora perfoliata, Thymus serpylhtm.
Reseda lutea, Helianthemtim vulgare (rock rose),
which emblazons the mossy banks, with its associate,
Poly gala viilgaris, etc., grow most profuselynip the
grassy slopes, while in the woods higher up the hill-
side the sight of the great masses of Dipsacus sylves-
tris, in full bloom, and, mixed with that in the tangled
underwood, thick beds of Senccio Jacobaa, is one really
worth while going far to see.

Hypericum perforation, Clematis vitalba, Ramincnhis
repens, Reseda luteola, Mclilotus officinalis. Geranium
Robertiannm, Galeopsis tetrahit, and vast numbers of
other common species in the Ranunculacea, Caryo-
phyllaccK, Umbelliferoe, Compositoe, Labiatse, and
Leguminosae orders are found everywhere about
there, in the lanes and on the hillsides.

Of the orchids I found but few, owing to the late-
ness of the season, but from various sources I learned

that it is a rich locality for them. All I came across
were Ophtys apifera. Orchis pyramidalis, Gymnadetiia
conopsea, and in the woods just above Kemsing, some
splendid spikes of Epipactis latifolia, in full bloom.
Ophrys mitscifera abounds in June, besides most of
the commoner species ; Orchis hii-cina (lizard orchis),
is to be met with, but is very rare.

Thanks to the kind directions of a local botanist,
of Ightham, I was lucky to find some fine plants of
Ativpa belladonna in an old chalk-pit near Wrotham.
The plant grows nearer Kemsing, but I failed to find
the spot. The lane (Pilgrim's Road), below Beechy
Lees, near Kemsing, affords fine specimens of Tri-
foliu?ii fragifenim, Lcpidiiim cainfestre, and Linaria
vulgaris, and farther down a lane, which crosses the
railway line between Kemsing and Seal, I discovered
a corner where dwelt some Thlaspi arvense (honesty),
and Lathy rus macrorrhizits.

At Beechy Lees, in the lane there, are two good-
sized plants of Lithospermutn officinale; this plant
grows but sparingly. A slight declivity in the hill-
side near Kemsing is ablaze with masses of Papaver
somiiiferum — I never saw a more luxuriant growth of
them. Amongst the other lovers of the downs are
Gentiana amarella, Fragai'ia vesca, and in the corn-
fields on the range, Anagallis arvensis, Valcrianella
dentata, Li?taria spiiria, Anthirrinum orontium, and
a small quantity of Atiagallis arveftsis, var. caridea.
Farther along we find Nepeta catana (cat-mint),
Mentha arvensis, Spergula arvensis, Echium vulgare,
Filago germaftica, and others. I saw a specimen of
Lathyrus aphaca, just gathered on the hills, but
found none myself. Space forbids of my mentioning
other plants more particularly, but I would strongly
urge any one, who cares for botanising, to run down
and pay a visit to the Kentish hills and lanes around
Kemsing on the earliest opportunity.

K. E. Styan.

OUR LANE.

{Ccmtinued frcmt p. 101.]

LIMITED space precludes me from dwelling at
length upon the curious forms of insect and mol-
luscan life that are to be found in our lane. I cannot,
however, refrain from describing a creature probably
unfamiliar to many naturalists. One gloriously bright
day, during the past summer, I was reclining upon
the close-cropped turf on the summit of the Down,
when, hard by, my eye happed upon a tiny hole —
about large enough to admit a small pea. Presently,
some half inch adown it, I see an object slowly
rising — it stops — and for some few minutes I keep
my eye riveted upon it. Slowly, very slowly, again
it upward moves — reaches the margin of the hole,
then once again stops. So nicely adjusted in size
to the orifice is the object, and so exactly does it
assimilate to the earth in color, that, it is hard to

124

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

believe that any hole exists. Still patiently I watch
until a tiny, red velvety-jacketed spider, unsus-
pecting of danger, runs in a line directly across the
treacherous path. In less than the twink of an eye a
sharp click — spider and trap-door together disappear
— and lo ! in place thereof a hole is once more open
to my inquisitive eye. 'Tis the burrowr of the larva
of that most beautiful of all English insects the tiger
beetle (Cicindcia campestris), and that nicely fitting
trap-door was its flattened head, armed with a terrible
pair of jaws, on which, if once impaled, no victim
will ever find escape.

The larva of the tiger beetle is a remarkable
instance of the adaptation of an animal to the
conditions of its existence. 'Tis a curiously un-
attractive specimen of insectivity when exhumed,
and it will at once be seen that it has been furnished
with special organs fitted for the performance of
special work. These consist of a pair of tubercles,
situated on the upper side of the isoft abdomen, to
these are attached two hooks, each surrounded by a
series of stiff bristles. These curious appendages
enable the creature to climb up, and retain its position

Fig. %T.— Helix
hispiJa.

Fig. 86. — Helix aspersa.

inj any part of its smooth burrow, which, without
some such arrangement, it would be impossible for it
to do. Its flattened head, which is furnished with
six eyes, not simply serves the purpose of an efficient
shield, but is, also, a powerful implement, which
enables its possessor to cast out with facility the
excavated earth. Small pellets of sand, or loam,
and particles of rock introduced into the burrow are
ejected with wonderful precision and considerable
force, as are, also, the exuviae of its victims. A
sharp unmistakable click is heard, and the particle
is shot forth as a bomb from a mortar. When
visible, gently touch the shield-like head with a
slender blade of grass, the click which accompanies
the lightning-like backward movement of the head
indicates that the object has unerringly been struck,
and the slight start of the operator almost invariably
jerks the uncanny looking creature from its burrow.
When the larva is about to change into the pupal
condition, it securely barricades its burrow with a
diaphragm of earth, and in due time emerges a beetle,
resplendent in a panoply of emerald and ruby,
garnished with burnished gold, but endowed with
instincts little in accord with its beauteous aspect.

The burrows are numerous in the sun-scorched
banks and indurated footpaths at the top of our lane.

Space will not allow of my describing many other
curious forms of insect life, but winged creatures both
dipterous and hymenopterous, and of " forms and
hues divine," abound. Well represented are the
butterflies and moths : amongst the former the least
common are the beautiful brimstone (Gonepteryx
Rhanuii) and the dark-green fritillary {Argynnis
Aglaia), but some of the most richly coloured kinds
are abundant, the painted lady {Cynthia Cardni)
and the peacock ( Vanessa Id) particularly so ; the
red admiral ( Vanessa Atalanta), I seldom light upon,
whilst the commonest form in my orchard and
neighbourhood is the small tortoiseshell {V. Urticcc).
Of course the pretty orange-tip {Anthocaris Card-
amines) is, at times, plentiful ; nor must I forget that
charming though by no means rare blue — the chalk -
hill blue {Folyommatus Corydon). The speckled
wood (Lasiom7nata^geria), the wall (Z. Megara), and
the green hair-streak {Thecla Rubi), besides a host of
commoner species, sport in the summer sunshine, and
proclaim the richness of the locality in these " things
of beauty."

Of all the many species of moths to be met with I
have found the burnet to be wonderfully plentiful at

Fig. 88. — Helix arbusiorum,

the lane-top, and the exquisite little twenty-plume
[Alucita hexadactyla) equally abundant in my garden.
All through the year — except during the coldest
months — three or four to a dozen, and upwards, may
always be found under the shelter of my stone,
honeysuckle covered porch, very many specimens
hybernating in our bedroom and dark closets.

As might be expected, the Ichneumonidae are in
full force ; their name is Legion, and many and
curious^ are their nests to be found in the neighbour-
hood of our lane. The mud-wasps, too, build their
mud-cells in nearly every sunny crevice in the
woodwork of our summer-house, in which are stored
the living caterpillars which serve as food for the
young grubs when hatched. Then, too, the solitary
wasp ( Vespa Norvegica) last summer hung its pretty
pensile nest in a sheltered spot, o'erhung with ivj-,
and within but six inches of a spotted flycatcher's
nest. Although in such close proximity, both
creatures must have been peaceably engaged in their
building operations at the same time. Several
species of spiders that I have never before met with
are to be found in the hedges, some I believe to be
rare.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

125

Briefly let me refer to the land shells so abundant
in our lane, and woods, and fields hard by. Not far
has one to seek to find a plenitude of helices.
Helix aspersa. If. iiemoralis, H. hortensis, H. arbus-
torum, H. virgata, H. ericctormn, H. hispida, H.
riipestris, and H. lapicida go far towards forming the
nucleus of a good collection. In moist weather the
smooth-barked beeches bristle with Clausilia lami-
nata, and, if less abundant, C. riigosa (C. nigricans)
is yet plentiful on the mossy banks and stones.
Bulitniis obsairus, too, occurs in company with C.
laminata, and pupae abound under fallen logs and
stones. Pupa secale, P. timbilicata, P. pygma:a and
P. siibstriata may be collected at all times, whilst a
search of damp moss and stones will soon reveal
Zonites nitididus, Z. radiatiilns, Z. excavahis, Z.
nitidus, Z. crystallimis, and Z. cellarius. Nor will
the searcher go unrewarded if he seeks for Balea
fragilis, Ziia hibrica, and Azeca tridetis. Slug collec-
tors would doubtless discover many varieties. I
have once turned up in our garden Testacella
haliotoidea.

It would be a profitless labour to enumerate a
tithe of the plants which flourish in and about our
lane. So diversified with hill and dale are these rich

Fig. 8g. — Helix virgata.

woodlands, that, 'twere remarkable indeed if a
wonderful variety could not be found. Not botanist
enough am I to say if many great rarities may be
discovered, but may yet venture to predict that the
diligent collector cannot fail to add many an un-
familiar one to his store. The meadow saff"ron
flourishes in our orchard, the lesser periwinkle
( Vinca minor) carpets the ground over large areas
beneath the trees in the beech wood at the top of
our lane, where, also, I have found in abundance the
bee orchis {Orphrys apifera), the butterfly orchis
{Habenaria bifolia), and a host of others. The
moneywort {Lysimachia nnmmidaria), is fairly plen-
tiful in some places, and if, bearing away from our
lane, we descend to the lowest parts of the beech and
larch woods, we shall quickly find the spurge laurel
{Daphne laureola). A wealth of smaller plants
clothe our banks with beauty.

The mistletoe {Viscum a/bum) is very abundant,
and is to be found growing upon apple-trees in many
an old orchard hereabout. Nor is our floral display
confined to the plants beneath our feet, for from
the time the hazel hangs out its tasselled catkins, and
the yew expands its flowers, until the late lime {Tilia
Europiza) perfumes the air with its delicious odour,
we have a succession of bloom. Haw- and black-

thorns, sycamore, mountain ash, horse chestnut, ash,
elm, holly, box, birch, beech and crab. Do not the
orchards, too, spread out their treasures to catch the
genial sun-rays ? I know no greater delight than,
when the pink-tipped apple-blossoms are fully ex-
panded, to wander 'neath their flowery shade, and,
meanwhile, drink in with ecstasy the sweet concert
of woodland music poured from a hundred tiny
throats ; at such moments one feels that every sense is
steeped in innocent delight, and sadly out of
harmony with nature must be his soul who cannot
find refreshment in communion with her in these her
happiest moods.

The transition from the overshadowing beech to
the humble moss, that garnishes its gnarled roots with
beauty, may seem a somewhat sudden one ; far less,
however, than might at first appear, for are they not
friends, from earliest life associate and interdepen-
dent? 'Twere needless to tell how lavishly these
humble members of the vegetable kingdom have been
spread o'er earth, and twig, and stone, and the mus-
cologist will in our lane and woods find an Eldorado.

Nor will the fungologist fare less pleasantly, for a
profusion of curious forms spring up on every side.
Very brilliantly coloured specimens, too, are some.

Fig. 90. — Helix laficidia.

One has a bright scarlet pileus, studded with small
golden knobs ; this I take to be the Amanita f?tuscaria
of the fungologist. Many another bright-coloured
"toadstool" of graceful form have I come across in
my autumnal rambles through the woods ; though
evanescent their beauty, they yet afford the naturalist
much more than a moment's joy, nor run in vain is
their short-lived course.

Not yet exhausted are the attractions of our lane —
nevertheless, no longer are things animate my
pleasant theme. Things inert — the veriest shadows
of things that were, but are no longer — these must be
the subject of my closing remarks — the remains of
creatures that once enjoyed their short day of life —
then perished to make room for others, and leave
behind a record of times remote, when man — earth's
youngest born — was a creature in the far, far distant
future.

Could some marvellously facile pen unfold the story
of their life, 'twould be a wondrous one indeed, but
we must be content to read it in the vestiges which
crowd the rocks beneath our feet. Our lane and all
the surrounding district is situated upon the formation
known as the Upper Oolite, one rich in fossil remains,
which may generally be readily extracted from the
matrix. Sea urchins and pentacrinites, and univalve

126

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

and bivalve shells innumerable, may be collected by
the geologist, both in the quarries and road mender's
stone heaps, trigonias and grypheas being exceedingly
common ; rhynchonellas and terebratulas occur
abundantly in our garden ; and when, after a heavy
summer downpour, the converging water-courses
pour their united streams adown our lane, it is con-
verted into a very mountain-torrent, which sweeps all
before it, leaving the rock clean swept. From this
we may pick many small specimens. The collector
will, however, doubtless prefer to gather his finds in
the numerous quarries existing in the neighbourhood,
nor need he diverge many steps from our lane to ob-
tain the objects of his quest.

Very imperfectly hath my pleasant task been per-
formed. I would that some more facile pen than mine
had writ the story. But briefly though it hath been
told, 'tis yet enough to show that within the circum-
scribed limits of our lane is stored materials of abid-
ing interest, and that to record the life-history of its
denizens would fully engage each busy moment of a
life, e'en though its span should far exceed the
allotted threescore years and ten.

Alas ! the besom of so-called improvement hath
ruthlessly swept away many a sweet refuge from the
toils and tumult of the restless world ; the joy of
many a humble worshipper at Nature's shrine hath
long since been translated into a pleasant memory.

Though threatened, many yet survive — long may
they be preserved — and last to disappear, and leave
the world less beautiful, I trust may be " Our Lane."

; AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
BRITISH DIPTERA.

By E. Brunetti.

\Continuedfrotn p. 105.]
X^.. BombylidcE.

THE typical Bombylida: are large bee-like flies,
with large, globular, very pubescent abdomens,
long proboscis, and long, very slender legs ; their
flight being very swift, feeding on nectar, and in-
habiting dry warm spots in the height of summer.

The larvae live on plant roots, or are parasitic on
Lepidoptera. All the half-score or thereabouts of
British species are more or less uncommon. The
transformation of several species have been chronicled
by Reaumur and Schaffer.

Proboscis long ; antenna; contiguous at base.

First antennal joint long : Boiiihylius, L.

First antennal joint short : Phthiria, Mg.
Proboscis short; antenna; at base remote; Anthrax, Scop.

Anthrax paniscus, Rossi, has a somewhat
oblongated black abdomen, covered with dense
yellow pubescence, as is also the thorax ; the wings
being pale grey, the legs black, the proboscis rather
short (for this family). The species basks in the
sunshine; long 12 mm. A. fenestrata, Fin., comes

from the New Forest. A. morio, L., a common
continental species, has been reared from larvae in
the nest of a bee {Aiiihophora). I have one or two
specimens of Anthrax in which spurious veins are
present, this apparently being no uncommon thing in
this genus.

Bombylius major, L., has a globular black
abdomen, densely covered (and the thorax also) with
pale yellow pubescence ; proboscis very long ; legs
long, slender, black ; wings clear, with the fore
border marked with brown ; long 9 mm.

An allied and less common species (B, discolor,
Mik.), often mistaken for B. meditis, L., which is a
non-British species, is rather larger, and has the
wings marked with numerous small circular brown
spots, and appears in spring, especially on primrose.

European and exotic species of this family are
very numerous, and assume large proportions and
brilliant colouring.

No less than twenty-seven species, additional to the
eight he admits as British, have been introduced as
indigenous, according to Mr. Verrall.

B. major, L., Wlk. i. PI. ii. 14. A, paniscus,
Rossi, Mg., Sys. Bes. iii. PI. xvii. 19 (cingulata).

18. Therevidcc,

Carnivorous Diptera, frequenting sandy spots ; the
sexes differing in the colour of the pubescence.
Flight swift ; larva living in the earth. Abdomen
elongated; venation well marked; legs rather delicate
and easily broken off. Allied to the Asilidce and
Bombylida:, with which latter family Walker
erroneously included them.

The six authenticated British species are more or
less rare, T. fulva, Mg., being perhaps the most
common. It is a black fly, with yellow bands across
the abdomen, which is clothed with thin yellow
pubescence, the dorsum of the thorax being bluish -
grey, with two central longitudinal yellow stripes ;
wings greyish, tinged with yellow ; legs smooth and
tawny ; long 9 mm.

7*. nobilitata, F., is also not rare.

T. annulata, ¥., is easily known by its white
pubescence — present in both sexes. Meigen records
the larva of this species as living in rotten wood.

The genus Thereva is now usually split up into
three, distinguished as follows : —

Under-side of face naked : Psilocephala, Zett.
Under-side of face hairy.

Fourth posterior cell open : Dialineura, Rond.

Fourth posterior cell closed : Thereva, Latr.

19. Scetiopittida,

Three species of this small, natural group (only
one genus being European), are British : the venation
is peculiar, somewhat resembling that of the
acalypterate Muscida: ; sluggish flies.

Scenopinus fenestralis, L., is not rare, occurring in
houses, hotbeds, greenhouses, and on willows, the

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

127

larva living in rotten fungi. S. Niger, Deg. Curt.
609 {nigosiis).

20. Cyrtidcc.

This unique group, till quite recently known as the
AcroccridiZ, is also a limited and natural one, being
allied to some genera of Botnhylida:. Small, soft,
globular flies, the abdomen being apparently filled
with air, splitting open Avith the least touch ; head
nearly all eye ; thorax very convex ; venation very
indistinct, and confined principally to the upper
portion of the wing ; legs very short ; sluggish in
nature ; found on tree trunks and flowers, or floating
about in the breeze on calm, sunny days ; long
4-5 mm,

Oncodes gibbos^is, L., is selected by a species of
Crabro, which burrows in wood, as the food for its
young.

Only two genera are British, each represented by
a single species.

Third longitudinal vein forked : Paracrocera, Mik.
Third longitudinal vein simple : Oncodes, Latr.

Paracrocera globulus, Pz., Wlk. PL i, 16.

21, Empidie.

About 160 species of this extensive family are
British. Their habits are very various, they
frequenting woods, ditches, fields, and the banks of
streams, some having the power of running over the
surface of the water. Head small ; body attenuated ;
legs long and slender ; posterior femora in <f in some
genera much enlarged.

Some inhabit the coast, a few frequent flowers,
running with great swiftness over the leaves and
herbage. Many species are common, some abundant,
often for a few days only, and while swarming, fly
backwards and forwards in streams, moving as by a
common impulse.

The venation varies in the several genera ; mostly
carnivorous (especially the ? , the ^ often feeding on
the juices of plants), small Diptera, and Ephemerida
appearing to be their chief prey.

Westwood illustrates the larva of one or two
species. Five sub-families are recognised, all being
represented in Britain,

Anal cell present.

Anterior coxae shorter than femora.

Proboscis long: third longitudinal vein forked: Em-

pincE.
Proboscis short ; third longitudinal vein simple.

Anal cell longer than lower basal cell : HybotincE.
Anal cell shorter than lower basal cell : Ocy-
dromirue.
Anterior coxae very prominent ; as long as, or longer than,
femora : H emerodroniiiue .
Anal cell absent : Tackydromina:.

Hybotincs. — Hybos grossipes, L., is a small shining
black fly with black legs, the posterior femora being
enlarged in the d". Flight slow; it usually hovers
in swarms on summer evenings. Long 4J mm,
Cyrtoma, Mg,, inhabits trees and woods in summer.

Empincc. — Empis, L. The larva and pupa live in

the earth, the latter in some species being spined.
About thirty species are British, appearing chiefly iu
the spring ; the 9 are very voracious.

E. livida, L., is a long brown fly, with three
longitudinal 'black stripes on the thorax ; long pale
tawny legs, with black tips to tarsi and tibice, and
very pale brown or quite clear wings ; common ;
long 8-9 mm,

E. iessellata, F,, is allied to the above ; rather
stouter and larger, legs darker brown ; thorax with
three black stripes ; abdomen marked with a light
spot in the centre of, and joined to a light posterior
border to, each segment ; wings brown ; long 9 mm.
Macquart observed one species {O. opaca, F.) emerge
from the pupa,

Rhamphomyia, Mg., allied to Empis ; apical trans-
verse nervure wanting ; twenty species British, their
habits being similar to those of Empis.

Pachymeria femorata, F,, is a small black fly with
pale brown wings and black stigma ; black legs with
the two posterior pairs with dense black fringe on
femora and tibice ; long 4-5 mm.

Hilara, Mg. Many species of this extensive genus
are met with on summer evenings, swarming over
streams.

H. maiira, F., is a small shining black fly with
black legs and pale grey wings ; black along the fore
border and with black stigma, I could have taken
ten or twelve thousand specimens of this species one
day at Staines, where it swarmed over a shallow
stream. It is very common ; long 4 mm. The
species (twenty are British) are closely allied. The
anterior tarsi in many species are dilated in the ^ .

Ocydromince. — About six or eight species are
British.

Heiiierodromijicc. — Heinerodromia, Mg., inhabits
grass, shrubs, and moist situations ; their flight is
slow; their fore-legs enlarged ; long 3-5 mm.

Clinocera, Mg., a genus of slenderly-built flies, of
which we have nine species ; inhabits moist localities,

Tachydro7nini2. — Tachydromia, Mg., an extensive
genus, is represented in Britain by about thirty
species, occurring in marshy situations ; their move-
ments are very agile, running swiftly over the leaves.
This species are widely distributed,

H. grossipes, L., Curt. 661 (pilipes). E. livida^
L., Curt. Farm insects, PI, J, 5, E. borealis, L.,
Curt, 18, Ragas unica, Wlk,, Wlk. iii. 3. Clinocera
stag7talis, Hal., Wlk, iii. 6,

22, Dolichopidce.

About one hundred and sixty species of this family
are indigenous. Two very excellent monographs on
the genus Dolichopiis, Latr., have been published by
Stannius (1831), and Staeger (1S42).

The Dolichopidcs are rather small flies, usually of
a metallic green or bronze colour, with long, spiny
legs, very brittle in character. The wings are
o-enerally clear, the abdomen usually conical, shining^

128

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

and shortly pubescent. Many species are common ;
they occur chiefly on hedges and in grass, on the
stems oi reeds, and plants of low growth. The
abdomen at the tip curls inwards in the majority of
the species.

Psilopiis, a genus of delicate, long-legged flies ;
congregates in small groups in shady spots.

Dolichopus, Latr., found in marshy ground and
long grass, in rank herbage and about overgrown
pools ; a few species occur on the sea-coast. Degeer
has observed the transformations of D. tingulatus.

Dolichopus trivialis, Hal. , metallic green ; face
above antenna; green, below whitish ; antenna; black ;
wings pale grey ; legs livid or pale yellow ; tarsi
black ; tibise spiny ; common ; variable ; long 4-5 mm.
Poecilobothrus ttobilitatus, L., brilliant metallic
green ; under-side of thorax with silvery-grey reflec-
tions ; face silvery below, green above ; antennae,
which are black ; legs pale yellow ; tips of posterior
tibiis, and all tarsi black ; wings clear ; a large
brown streak near the tip extending from fore to
hind border ; not uncommon ; long 5 mm.

Diaphoris, Mg., and Chry solus, Mg., very small
and uncommon flies, metallic in colour, occurring
on trees in the hot sunshine.

Argyra, Mcq., conspicuous by the whitish pu-
bescence on the abdomen in some of the species ;
generally distributed.

Argyra diaphaiia, F., thorax blackish ; dorsum me-
tallic green ; abdomen greenish-black ; sides of first
two or three segments pale yellow, and from the
second segment to the tip, with whitish tomentum ;
face and antennae black ; wings pale grey ; legs
blackish-brown, tibia; lighter ; not uncommon ;
variable. The ground colour and markings of the
abdomen resemble those of Homalomyia caniculala ;
long 6 mm.

Porphyrops, Mg., about twelve species — some not
uncommon.

Hydrophonisy Whig. This, with Medeterus of
Fisch, are carnivorous genera (Doubleday and
Macquart both record having watched them devour
small insects.) The former inhabits the surface of
pools ; the latter frequents dry, warm localities, and
is conspicuous by its bulky proboscis.

Thinophilus, Whlbg., three species ; rare ; sea-
coast.

Sccllus notatus, F., metallic bronze ; sides of thorax
with whitish reflections ; face brown or black ;
whitish below antenna; ; antennje black ; wings with
brown streaks along the veins, and a distinct brown
spot on fourth longitudinal vein near the tip ; legs
blackish ; a few scattered spines ; not rare ; long
5J-6 mm.

Campsicnemus, Wlk., found in damp grass, occur-
ing during the greater part of the year. C. scambiis
is not rare.

The following plates aregood -.--Argyra leucocephala,
Wlk. i. PI. vii. 4. Mcdelerus diadema, Wlk. i. PI. vii.

8. Psilopus Weidemanii, Wlk., i. PI. vi. I. Cam-
psiciicnms scambus, Wlk., i. PL vi. 6. Porphyrops
clcganUdus, Curt., 541. Scelhis notatus {Hydrophorus),
Curt., 162.

23. Lonchopleridce,

A limited group of small active flies, inhabiting
grassy marshes and such like habitats, being found
during the greater part of the warm weather. About
half a dozen species are British, two being tolerably
common, L. hitea, Pz., the commonest, being
yellowish-brown with black antennae and eyes, a
black spot on the vertex of the head and the centre
of the front of the pronotum ; a brownish-black
vertical stripe on the abdomen (variable) ; a thin
central brown line on the thorax, and dark tarsi.

Lonchoptera hitea, Pz., Wlk., vol. i. PI. viii. I.

24. Platypczidce.

All the four European genera of this family are
British, representing about a dozen species, all more
or less uncommon, inhabiting woods, the larvae
living in fungi.

Van Roser has published his observations on
P. boletina. Fall., the larva of which lives in rotten
mushrooms, and resembles a seed. Westwood
figures it in his " Class. Ins.," vol. ii. Fig. 130-17.
Walker illustrates /'.//Wfl', Mg., " Br. Dip." i. PI. viii.
I, and Callomyia elegans, Mg., PI. viii. 3.

Curtis gives a good plate of Opetia lonchopteroides.
Curt., in his "Br. Ent." 489 ; mostly shining black
flies, about 4-5 mm. long.

The genera may be recognised as follows : —

Discal cell present.

Fourth longitudinal vein simple : Callomyia, Mg.

Fourth longitudinal vein forked : Platypeza, Mg.
No discal cell.

Fourth longitudinal vein simple : Platyctiema, Lett.

Fourth longitudinal vein forked : Opetia, Mg.

Platypeza picta, Wlk. i. PI. viii. I. Opetia
lonchopteroides, Curt. 4S9.

25. PipunculidiJ:.

Allied to both the Plalypczida: and SyrphidiC (to
the latter, through the sub-family Bacchincc), Three
genera are European, two being British. They
inhabit fields and woods, and are in the habit of
hovering in the air ; they are not difficult of deter-
mination, but none can be said to be common. They
are larger than the Platypezidu:, and more stoutly
built.

Discoidal cell present : Pipunculus, Latr.
Discoidal cell absent : Clialarus, Wlk.

Pipunculus pratoriim. Fall., Curt. 757. Chalarus
spuriits. Fall., " Br. Dip." i. PI. viii. 7.

26. Syrphida:.

This extensive and well-known group is divided
into several sub-families, and represented in Britain by
over 200 species (about iioo species are European).

As a rule the species of this family are flat-bodied.

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP.

129

brightly coloured insects (usually more or less yellow
-and black), many resembling wasps ; and they are
popularly known as drone flies or sun-flies, from their
Tiabit of hovering in the sun over flowers, emitting
meanwhile a shrill hum ; their movements on the
wing are very rapid, and, so to speak, spasmodic.

The larvDs feed on a variety of substances, some on
decaying vegetable matter, these being thus of con-
siderable assistance to agriculturists, the flies being
so abundant.

Schiner divides the SyrphidiS into eight sub-
families : Syrphimv, VolucelHtm, Sericomyimv, Eris-
talinir, Milcsiua, Chiysotoxifur, Microdonitur, Ceriucr ;
but Verrall neither recognises sub-families in his list,
nor adheres to the German author's sequence of
families.

The Pifiza group of genera seem to me appro-
priately placed next the Pipimculidic, and the Ceriiia:
undoubtedly approach the Conopidcv, which latter
family form a useful intemiediate group to connect
the divisions of Macquart's Tctrachivta: and Dickcvtc^.

The principal genera may be tabulated thus : —

Marginal cell closed.

Antennae plumose : Volucella, Geoft".
Antenna; with a bristle : Erisialis, Latr.
^Marginal cell open.

Posterior femora thickened.

Third longitudinal vein straight.

Fourth longitudinal, before its junction with third, bent
into two loops.

Fourth longitudinal at second loop bent back to

the third : Eiimerus, Mg.
Fourth longitudinal at second loop carried for-
wards to the third : Syritta, St. Farg.
Fourth longitudinal vein, from the portion bent up to
its junction with third, nearly straight, and more or
less in a straight line with the bent- up portion of the
tifth.
• Eyes bare.

Abdomen conical or rounded.

Arista bare : Criorhina, Mcq.
Arista plumose : Sericoiiiyia, Mg.
Abdomen elongated: Xylota, Mg.
Eyes hairy : Pipiza, Fall.
Third longitudinal vein strongly looped downwards
into first posterior cell: Helophilus, Mg.
Posterior femora normal.

Antennae elongated — longer than head — horizontal :

Chrysotoxum, Mg.
Antennae normal— shorter than head— deflexed.

Abdomen much retracted at basal segments :

BaccJia, F.
Abdomen barely or not retracted at base.
Eyes pubescent ; wings spotted.

Abdomen golden yellow : Chrysochlamys,

Rond.
Abdomen blackish blue : Leucozoua, Sch.
Eyes bare ; wings never marked.
Species yellow and black.

.A.bdomen elongated — longer than wings :

SpJuErophoria, St. Farg.
Abdomen oblong or oval — shorter than
wings.
Anterior tibiae in cT dilated ; abdomen

oblong : Platyckirus, St. Farg.
Anterior tibiae never dilated ; abdomen
oval : Syrplius,, F.
Species black or greenish-black.

Front rough or furrowed : Chrysogaster,

Mg.
Front smooth : Chilosia, Mg.

SyrpJms, F. This, the commonest genus, is repre-
■sented by about thirty-five rather closely allied
species, all more or less resembling wasps. Abdo-
men bright yellow, with transverse black stripes ;
thorax yellowish, greyish, or livid ; legs thin, yellow
with black rings ; wings usually clear ; long about

7-9 mm. The commonest species are S. rihesii, L.,
corolla, F., pyrastri, L. ; larva figured by Westwood,
Class, Ins. ii. Fig. 130-21. Baltcatus, Deg.,
Bouche has observed the metamorphoses of this
species, and liiniger, Mg. The larvae of this genus
feed on Apkidcc.

Flatychirus, St. Farg., an allied genus of about
twelve British species, has a narrower abdomen,
several species being common ; about the length of,
and closely resembling Syrphiis. The venation in
SyrpJucs, Platyckirus, Chilosia, and Melanostoma is
very similar. Mr. Verrall, in the " Ent. Mon. Mag.,"
gives some excellent notes on the British species
of Platychinis,

Chilosia, Mg., a rather large genus of black flies,
more or less pubescent, rather stoutly built; wings
never marked, and generally grey or brown. Chiefly
found in woods and meadows, and most of the species
are more or less local ; long about 8-10 mm. A
continental authority (Professor F. Kowarz) has
recently revised the majority of the European species.
Rhingia rostrata, L., a characteristic species ; tawny
brown, with a black head and thorax ; tawny face
produced in the form of a strong, long, pointed
snout ; wings pale grey ; legs tawny ; proboscis long
and horny ; common ; long 7-8 mm. Reaumur found
the larva in cow-dung.

Eristalis, Latr.— These are the typical "drone
flies," several species being very common, the larvre
living in stagnant water.

E. ictiax, L., is a brown fly, with grey or pale
tawny marks on the abdomen ; face clothed with
short, pale yellow pubescence, with a strong, broad,
central black line ; legs brown, paler at the knees and
tips ; wings clear, or slightly brown at the base, fore-
border, and towards the tip ; thorax clothed with
short thick tawny brown pubescence ; abdomen very
variable in colour, sometimes entirely black ; very
common everywhere ; long 10-12 mm.

I once placed a live cf in a glass-top box with a
dead 9 and it remained in cop. for about half an
hour.

E. intricarius, L., abdomen thickly clothed with
black hair, tip with whitish hair ; base of the tibise
pale yellow ; wings clear ; scutellum surrounded by
thick yellow hair ; thorax clothed with black hair ;
rather smaller, less common, and more local than
tenax. The colour of the pubescence varies greatly,
being sometimes nearly all yellow, or with a reddish
tinge ; long 8-9 mm.

E. arbusiorum, L., a very common species, smaller
than intricarius ; abdomen bare, tawny with, roughly
speaking, two black triangular spots on it, their
apices nearly touching ; legs black and yellow ;
wings clear ; thorax with greyish yellow pubesence ;
face with yellowish white hair ; frontal stripe in 2
black ; long 8 mm. ; very common everywhere ;
variable.
-.Volucella bombyla7is, L., a large bee-like fly covered

13°

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

with thick pubescence, which is yellow on the thorax,
black at base of the abdomen, and whitish or reddish
at the tip, and two yellow tufts of pubescence at the
sides of the base of the abdomen ; under side of
thorax with thick black hair ; face with yellow hair,
and in 9 with a central stripe of thick yellow hair ;
legs black ; wings pale grey, brownish tinged along
the fore borden; very variable. There are two
distinct varieties, both of which Miss E. Ormerod
has bred from one- batch of eggs; and Mr. Verrall
possesses a series, showing every form of intermediate
colouring ; common ; long 9-1 1 mm.

V. pclhicens, L., a large black fly ; bare ; basal half
of abdomen livid ; legs black ; wings nearly clear,
with a large irregular blackish spot in the centre of
the fore border, extending downwards half way across
the wing ; face yellow ; slightly smaller than bomhy-
lans ; common.

Helophilus pendulus, L., a yellow fly; bare; top
of thorax black, with four yellow stripes ; abdomen
with transverse black markings ; face yellow, with
a central black line ; legs black and yellow ; posterior
femora enlarged ; wings clear ; rather common ;
long 9-10.

Several other species of Hclophiliis are more or
less common in Britain ; mostly yellowish in colour,
and allied \.o penduliis ; known as "sun-flies," their
habits being similar to those of Eristalis.

Xylota segnis, L. — Black, basal half of abdomen
dull red ; face with short whitish pubescence ; legs
black, with base of tibite yellow ; wings grey or pale
brown ; posterior femora enlarged ; long 8-9 mm.
About six species of Xylota are British. The larva
of Xylota lives in decayed wood,

Syritta pipiais, L., is a small and very common
insect found everywhere, London included. Black,
with the under side grey ; face with thick greyish
white pubescence , a small yellowish spot at each
edge of posterior borders of the abdominal segments ;
legs black, marked with tawny or yellow ; posterior
femora much enlarged ; wings quite clear ; variable
in size and markings. Larva lives in horse-dung ;
long 5-7 mm.

Criorhma oxyacantha:, Mg., resembles a bee;
covered with yellow pubescence, deepest in colour on
the thorax ; face much produced ; black, covered on
upper side with thick yellow hair ; legs all black or
dark brown ; wings pale grey, yellowish at the base,
and with a black stripe extending half way across the
wing from the centre of the fore border. The larva
lives in river bank mud ; long 12-13 mm.

Eumenis, Mg., a genus allied to Syritta, is repre-
sented by three species.

Chtysogastcr, Mg., is a genus of metallic, dark,
greenish-black flies, with rather dark wings ; black
legs, short pubescence ; several species, all closely
allied, are British ; one of their characteristics is the
grooved face ; they appear chiefly in spring and
summer on Ranunculi ; long 6-7 mm.

Chrysotoxtnn, Mg. — Seven species are British. A.
genus of large, handsome, wasp-like flies, except that
the base of the abdomen is not contracted ; thorax.
black, with yellow side markings ; face black,
generally with a wide central black line ; abdomen
oval, convex, yellow with transverse black markings ;.
legs thin, principally yellow ; wings unmarked, grey-
ish ; base tawny yellow; long 10-12 mm. Larva
feeds on plant roots.

The Syrphidcc occasionally swarm in countless,
numbers, when several species are sometimes found
forming part of the host. At Margate, in August,
1869, the following appeared in vast profusion during
one day : — E, icnax, S. balteatus, and Sphicroplioria-
ticniatiis.

Swammerdam and Reaumur have studied and'
illustrated their writings on the life-histories of
several common species.

Over a thousand species are European. Sphegina-
clunipes. Fin., Wlk. i. PI. x. 16. Syrphiis pyrastri^,
L., Wlk. i. PI. x. 12. Leucozoiia lucornim, L., Curt.
753. Rhingia campestris, L., Curt. 182. Vohtcellct
ivflata, F., Curt. 452. Scricomyia borealis, Fin.,.
Walk. PI. ix. 14. Syritta pipic?ts, L,, Wlk. PI. ix. 9.
Criorhina oxyacatithcc, Mg., Wlk. PI. ix. 12..
Chrysotoxiun bimaciilattitn. Curt. 853.

27. Cotiopida:.

This group is a small one, allied to both the
Syrphidie and higher forms of MuscidiE. The species
in the first division closely resemble wasps (Odynerzis,.
&c.) ; the larvDe are parasitic on bees, .Latreille
having reared P. rufipes from living Bombidic, whilst
Westwood noted the abundance of 0. atra on sand-
banks in which several species of bees burrowed.

One or two authors have greatly multiplied both,
genera and species, nearly ail their names being now-
sunk as synonyms. The eyes are wide apart in both,
sexes, the 9 being distinguished by a ventral horny-
process towards the end of the abdomen.

None of the species can be said to be common.

Antennae stylate ; ocelli absent (C['«(7/z«a').

First abdominal joint of normal width : Conops, L.
First and second abdominal joint much retracted : Phy-
socepJiala, Sch.
Antennse with a bristle ; ocelli present [Myopina:).

Proboscis bent only at the base : Zodion, Latr.
Proboscis bent at the base .Tnd at the middle.

Face much produced downwards below the eyes ;

proboscis short : Myopa, F.
Face not much produced downwards below the.
eyes ; proboscis long : Oncomyia.

Conopina.— Conops flavipes, L., is black and
yellow ; face yellow, with a central black stripe ;. °
antennce black ; thorax black, with yellow spots on.
shoulders ; abdomen black, with two ( $ ) or three
((j) yellow bands; legs yellow and black; wings-
greyish ; fore border brownish ; long 10 mm. This,
is the most common species of the genus.

Phyrocephala riifipes, Y .—Phyrocephala is dis-
tinnjished from Conops by the first and second
abdominal segment being much contracted ; the legs

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-G OSSIF.

131

are thinner, and have frequently a twisted appearance.
The colour of F. rufipcs is brownish red ; face
yellowish, with a black central stripe ; antennae
black ; legs tawny brown, marked with black ; wings
pale grey, anterior portion pale brown almost to the
tip ; tip of abdomen covered with thin silvery-grey
tomentum, and it varies in colour ; long 10 mm.

Myopinic. — Sicusfentigitiais, Scop.; rather common
and widely distributed. Uniformly tawny ; face
broad — reddish-yellow ; wings pale grey, tinged
with tawny ; long 6-8 mm.

Nyopa iestacca, L. , is tawny ; dorsum of thorax
black, with greyish reflections ; wings pale tawny
grey ; internal transverse vein clouded ; under side
of face white ; pubescent ; rather common, and
generally distributed ; long 5-7 mm.

M. biiccata, L., an allied and rather common
species, has pale brownish marks on the wings, giving
them a mottled appearance, and the transverse veins
are not distinctly clouded. Stomoxysy a genus of
Muscidir, has erroneously been included in this
family.

Conops fiavipes, L., Panz. Ixx. 21. Physocephala
rufipes, F., Wlk. i. PI. x. 18.

28. CEstridco.

The (Estridit form a small but very interesting
group, represented by eight British species. In the
imago the mouth is obsolete, the venation more or
less obscurely defined, and the alulae large ; eyes
widely separated in both sexes. In the larval state
they are parasitic, each species living on or in a
different animal, the larva dropping to the earth
when fully developed, and pupating in the ground.

In Gastrophilus equi, F., the 9 lays her eggs in
the mine of the horse, and on the animal licking it,
the eggs pass into the stomach, where the lai-vae
emerge and develop, afterwards passing out with the
dung, and pupating in the earth. The imago is a
brown fly, with yellow and brown pubescence ; the
face is covered with yellow pubescence ; the legs are
thin, yellow, somewhat short ; the wings grey, with
a dull brown stripe in the centre ; the abdomen has
yellowish pubescence. Long 11-12 mm.

Oestris ovis, L. The g lays her eggs on the nose of
the sheep, the larvae crawling thence into the head,
where they attain their full size, afterwards descend-
ing the nostril, and assuming the pupa state in the
ground.

It is a brownish-grey fly, with clear wings, large
white alulce, and yellowish-brown legs; long 9-10
mm. "When attacked, the sheep cluster in a circle,
liolding their noses together close to the ground.

Hypoderma bovis, Deg., is parasitic on cattle,
laying its eggs in the back, a tumour arising, from
which when full grown the larvae emerge. Black,
pubescent ; tip of abdomen with red pubescence ;
face and under side with grey pubescence ; legs
black ; wings brown ; long 12-14 mm.

One or two other species are British, but are very
rare. Clark's essay on "Bots" is a splendid mono-
graph, splendidly illustrated. It is impossible to breed
the flies, as the larvos die on removal from its host.
They are very swift on the wing ; the larva; are
popularly known as "warbles," and the perfect
insects as "bot-flies."

ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS.
No. 3.

I NOW come to a genus of testaceous Rhizopods,
viz., Difflugia, so common, and so widely
distributed, that every microscopist is more or less
familiar with their arenaceous, box-like shells.
Every pond, ditch, and bog is sure to furnish one or
more species of this ubiquitous genus, if the sediment
be carefully examined ; and it is somewhat comical
to see the box-like shells, especially the taller species,
bobbing about among the Algse and broken-down
organic detritus. The genus contains about twelve
species— differences in form of shell or test, and in
the character of the mouth, separating them. These
species, however, are often connected by inter-
mediate forms, and it is sometimes very difficult, and
more rarely impossible, at the time, to say definitely
to which species a given specimen may belong, as it
may possess the characters of at least two species, in
fairly-balanced proportions. They present themselves

Fig. gi. — Difflugia pyriformis. Fig. 92. — D. pyriformis.

as round, oval, pyriform, or in|other ways elongated,
box-like shells, made up of large and small sand-
grains and diatom frustules (chiefly of the linear
kind), separately or mixed in various proportions ; in
more than one species it is of chitinoid membrane,
and especially is this the case Jin the forms from
Sphagnum. Indeed, I believe that in all the species
there is a chitinoid basis, even in those species in
which nothing but sand-grains can be seen. They
vary greatly in form and size, not only among them-
selves, but in the same species. I have seen a D.
acuminata as large as the j'j of an inch in height ;
other and rounder species are as small as the ^^^ of an
inch in diameter ; but from ^ to 5^ of an inch may
be considered as ordinary dimensions. The sarcode
is occasionally coloured, more commonly green, and

132

HARD Wl CKE' S S CIENCE- G OSS I P.

often deeply so, but is more generally, in my ex-
perience, colourless, except as may be modified by
the presence of food, and it usually entirely fills the
shell. The pseudopodia are not, as a rule, numerous,
rarely more than five or six, and are long, and
finger-like. It is not every specimen, however, in
which the pseudopodia can be seen projected, but
when this is the case they will be found to lengthen

pear-shaped, hence the name ; other varieties are
ovoid and flask-shaped ; occasionally this is com-
pressed, and in one well-marked variety the top or
fundus of the shell has one or two pointed, conical
processes. In some the sand-grains are large,
rough and angular, in others most minute ; while
other forms have the large and small mixed in
varying proportions. One common form here has

Fig. ^-i.—Dlfftu^ia
fyrifor-ntis.

m.

WMii

Fig. loo. — D. acu-
minata.

Fig. 94. — Difflngia fiyi-iforinis.

Fig. (js-—Diflngia
gtobulosa.

Fig. gj.—D. glob7t/osa.

Fig. 99. — D. globulosa.

Fig. 102. — D. acuDiinata.
Baloon-shaped individual,
with rounded prolongation.

Fig. 96.— -D. glohu'osa^

Fig. 98. — D. globulosa.

Fig. 103. — D. acuminata. Sand-
grains with considerable space
between, which is filled uj>
with dark brown chitine.

Fig. loi.— Z>. acuminata.

Fig. 104. — D. Jirceoiata.

Fig. lo^.—Difiugia. pyriformis.
Specimen with straw-coloured
chitinoid basis, sand-grains,
rough. In form, it seems to
connect this species with Z>.
globulosa. This variety has,
been discovered since the fore-
going was written.

or shorten, or slowly to move from side to side,
almost continuously, while under observation. The
mouth of the test is in most cases infeiior and
terminal. During the past three months I have
found numerous individuals of the genus, belonging
to three species.

Difflugia pyriformis is perhaps the commonest
species of the genus, and varies greatly in size and
shape. The typical form is narrowly or broadly

its test of colourless chitinoid membrsne, with a few
widely-scattered sand-grains and diatoms. Tha
pseudopodia are, in this species, finely granular, and
and in all my specimens free from colour.

Fig. 91, the prevailing form here, of chitinoid
membrane, with widely-scattered sand-grains and
diatoms. Empty. Fig. 92, another similar one,
with sarcode encysted in a brownish ball. Fig.l93
large form, [test'- composed entirely of sand-grains.

HA RD WICKE ' 5 ^ CIENCE- G OS SIP.

^00

Pseudopodia extended. Fig. 94, very fine speci-
men from Sphagnum ; test of extra large and rough
sand-grains. Size 35 of an inch. Diffliigia glohidosa
is another common form, one of the smallest of the
genus. It was one of the first to be described and
figured, and is probably the D. protdformis of the
illustrious Ehrenberg. Its general form is that of a
round or oval box, more or less truncated at the
mouth. One common variety has exactly the form
of the * box ' of the sea urchin (Echinus). In the
character of the materials used in the formation of
the test, and in other particulars, it differs little from
the preceding. I occasionally come across a form in
several of our shaded wells and clear pools, which
has a large, eccentric mouth, like D. constricta, or
the spineless form of Contropyxa aacleata. As it
is too low for the former, and is wanting in the
appendages to the incurved mouth of the latter, it
more properly, I think, may be placed here. Size
from jJjj to :iJj^ of an inch.

Fig. 95. Empty test, made up of minute sand-
grains ; ventral view.

Fig. 96 of chitinoid membrane, with scattered large
sand-grains. Side view, pseudopodia extended.

Fig. 97. This form might, with almost equal
propriety, be classed with D. constricta, or even
with Centropyxis ecornix, as the mouth is eccentric,
and the highest part of the shell behind the mouth ;
but it appears to me, for reasons given above, to
have a greater affinity to the present species.

Fig. 98. Side view of specimen with closely-
packed sand-grains.

Fig. 99. The same, rolled over to show the
mouth of the shell.

Difflicgia aciiviitiata is also an equally common
form here, and I procure it in considerable numbers
from among Sphagnum in boggy places, and in most
of our shady wells and clear pools. The prevailing
form is shown in Fig. 100. The species mayjbe
described as pyriformis, drawn out to a point at the
top (fundus).

The test is oblong oval, in the typical form,
narrowing towards the mouth, and more or less
suddenly tapering towards the summit, in varying
degrees of acuteness. Although this species is as
variable as any in the genus, I have only as yet
found two well-marked varieties, during the three
months I have been specially studying the Rhizopods.
Like the preceding species, the test is made up of
sand-grains, occasionally intermixed with the frustules
of diatoms, or it is obviously of chitinous membrane,
either colourless or yellow, more or less incrusted
with the above elements, sometimes very irregularly
so. Size from >^-^ to ^Ij of an inch. Barcode rarely
coloured.

Fig. 100. The prevailing form in this district, of
colourless chitinoid membrane, with scattered sand-
grains and diatoms. Pseudopodia extended.

Fig. loi. Large specimen, from shaded well, test

of yellow, wrinkled chitine, with large sand-grains
and a few linear diatoms. The sand and diatoms do
not project much, but are apparently sunk in the
membrane, and so partake of its yellow colour. In
my next I shall treat of the box-like Gentropyxis, and
the genus Arcella. The latter is one of the
commonest forms of the Rhizopods, and is the one
most frequently noticed by microscopists who do-
not make a special study of the class.

Diffliigia iirceolata is a large variable form closely
related to D. acuminata. The shell is somewhat
ovate, amphora-like ; fundus either evenly rounded
or more or less acute, frequently furnished with
blunt spines. Neck short ; mouth large and round,
occasionally with a reflected rim.

This handsome species is of rare occurrence iri'
this district, and when I do find a specimen it has
generally been an isolated one. My specimen has an
acute fundus, and the neck is only slightly reflected.
Size about ,lg inch. The test is of sand grains — a few
large ones, regularly distributed, the intervals filled,
up with smaller ones of nearly equal size (Fig. 104).

J. E. Lord.

Rawtenstall.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. '

TX/TEMOIR OF SIDNEY GILCHRIST
IVl THOMAS, by R. W. Burnie (London :
John Murray). This is altogether a noble, bright,,
and cheerful book — the pleasant record of a brilliant
young life. The " Thoman-Gilchrist " process, by
which formerly half- worthless iron ore is converted into
good stuff, by having its phosphorus extracted, whilst
the latter in its turn is utilised as artificial manure— -
is already well-known to most of our readers. Only
thirteen years ago there was not in existence any
public record of the successful dephosphorisation of
pig-iron — last year there were 2,603,083 tons pro--
duced. In addition, last year there were placed on
the market, to be used as artificial manure — stones-
that science has converted into bread — no fewer than
623,000 tons of basic slag. This wonderful success
in metallurgy was due almost solely to the patience
and unwearying industry of Sidney Gilchrist Thomas,.
and yet he died (of overwork, it is to be feared) at
the early age of thirty-four. By that time he had
come to be acknowledged as the most brilliant
metallurgist of the century. Honours from all.
countries were showered thickly upon him. And yet
this scientist left school at seventeen to be a school-
teacher. At eighteen he was clerk in a London>
Police Court, an ofifice he held for twelve years. He
studied chemistry, mineralogy, geology, &c., on^
what leisure evenings he had, and conducted his
experiments and investigations then and during his.
holidays. He made his valuable discovery whilst
still a clerk at the Thames Police Court. Within
the brief period of a twelvemonth we find him a

134

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

clerk, and then the acknowledged leading metallur-
gist of his day. It is a wonderful story of what a
young man can do, and Mr. Burnie has told it well
in this handsome volume.

Coal, and what tue get from it, by Professor R.
Meldola (London : S.P.C.K.). This is perhaps the
most interesting of the volumes yet issued under
the title of " The Romance of Science." It is
a much-expanded issue of a Lecture delivered by
Professor Meldola at the London Institution, and
both to the student and the general reader it is a
highly-valuable, clear, and concise account of the
now-important coal-tar industry. All the valuable
materials here explained not many years ago were
worse than wasted. Science has reduced them, and
turned them to use. About three hundred coal-tar
colouring-matters are now made, and thirty of these
•are in economic use, all of them fast dyes. There
are thirty more fast enough for all practical require-
ments. The value of the coal-tar colouring-matters
.annually produced in Great Britain and on the
•Continent is five millions sterling. From the same
original source are also derived such explosives as
picric acid, medicines such as antypyrin, sweets
such as saccharin, and perfumes resembling vanilla,
bitter almonds, &c., to say nothing of the hydro-
quinin and eikeneogen used by photographers and
others. Professor Meldola's book is a genuine
"Romance," far transcending in interest and plot
three-fourths of the so-called "novels" of the day.
It is a book that will be largely read and highly-
prized.

Colour Measurement and Afixture, by Captain
Abney (London : S.P.C.K.). This is another of the
same half-crown series — all of which are written
by the chief recognised authorities on each subject.
Whatever Captain Abney has to say on the matters
.here discussed is sure to be listened to. There are
few appeals from his conclusions, especially when they
concern the physics and chemistry of photography.
Students will here find worked-out the heating,
luminous, and chemical effects of the spectrum.
The work contains sixteen chapters, devoted largely
to colours, their origin, effects, combinations, &c.,
and is abundantly illustrated where necessary to a
fuller understanding of the text.

The Missouri Botanic Garden. This institution
was founded by the late Mr. Henry Shaw, of whom
a lengthy biographical sketch is given. Professor
Trelease's " Inaugural Address," and a " Flower
Sermon," together with the First Annual Report, are
included in this nicely got-up volume. It is well
illustrated. Mr. Shaw must have been a very
sociable fellow, for he left money for an annual
banquet. Accordingly we have the report of that
•also, at which banquet one hundred guests were
.present.

Fifth Report of the United States Entomological
■Commission on Insects injurious to Forest a7id Shade

Trees, by A. S. Packard (Washington : Government
Office). This is a neatly got-up volume of a thousand
pages, illustrated by forty plates, and upwards of
three hundred woodcuts. The papers are strictly
scientific and thoroughly practical. Hence their
high economic value. They deal with the various
insects injurious to the oak, elm, hickory, butter-nut,
locust-tree, maple, cotton-wood, poplar, lime, birch,
beech, wild cherry, wild plum, thorn, crab-apple,
mountain ash, willow, hackberry, sycamore, pine,
spruce, fir, hemlock, larch, juniper, cedar, cypress,
&c., with full descriptions of the habits of their
insect enemies, and advice how to cope with them.

Annual Report of the Fruit- Growing Association
and Entomological Society of Ontario, 1S90 (Toronto).
This volume is the twenty-second annual report of
a most useful society. It is full of capital practical
papers on many matters concerning peaches, pears,
prunes, cherries, apples, grapes, &c., their growth,
decay, enemies (animal and vegetable). Horticul-
turists all over the world will be interested in this
useful volume, which it is a great pity to have
spoiled by the wretched photograph of the President
as frontispiece.

Zoological Articles contributed to the '■'■ Encyclo-
pLcdia Britannica," by Professor E. Ray Lankester,
&c. (London : A. & C. Black). All earnest students
of advanced zoology are already aware that the last
edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" contains
some of the most exhaustive articles on special
subjects connected with their science which have yet
been published. They are not likely to be excelled
for some time to come, and that ponderous but useful
work would therefore have had to be consulted, the
papers picked out of its many volumes, and much
time have been lost, if Professor Lankester and the
publishers had not hit upon the happy thought of
issuing the present volume at such a price that it
comes within pocketable reach of most students,
and lies in such a handy and compact form,
both for careful study and reference, that iew
naturalists or general libraries can do without it.
The illustrations are numerous, and one or two
important additions have been made to them over
and above those in the original work. The text,
also, has been corrected and slightly added to where
necessary and convenient. On the various papers
themselves it is not necessary to make any remarks.
Their high-class character practically places them
beyond the reach of criticism. All Professor
Lankester's articles are here reprinted — on " Proto-
zoa, Hydrozoa, MoUusca, Polyzoa, and Vertebrata."
In addition we have the following papers, by
permission of the authors—" Sponges," by Professor
Sollas ; "Planarians," by Professor von Graff:
" Nemertines," by Professor Hubrecht ; " Rotifera,"
by Professor Bourne ; and on " Tunicata," by
Professor Herdmann.

Telescopic IVork for Starlight Evenings^ by

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

135

W. F. Denning (London : Taylor and Francis).
Astronomical students and amateurs of the science
are numerous, and they are not unprovided with
manuals and other guides. But we doubt if we
possess any which so fully meets their wants as the
book before us. Its author is an enthusiastic
amateur astronomer, who has contributed for many
years past much valuable original work to the science
to which he is devoted. A completer working manual
of astronomy than this, his last-issued work, it is
difficult to conceive. It is full, clear, accurate, and
yet popular. Many of the chapters have appeared
as special papers contributed to scientific magazines,
where some of our readers must have met with
them. The chapters are as follows :— " The Tele-
scope, its Invention, and the Development of its
Powers," " Relative Merits of Small and Large
Telescopes," "Notes on Telescopes and their
Accessories," "Notes on Telescopic Work," "The
Sun," "The Moon," "Mercury," "Venus," "Mars,"
"The Planetoids," "Jupiter," "Saturn," "Uranus
and Neptune," "Comets and Comet-Seeking,"
" Meteors and Meteoric Observations," " The Stars,"
" Nebulre and Clusters of Stars," &c. The illustra-
tions are sixty-four in number, and all are of a
high-class character. Paper, type, and binding alto-
gether make up a handsome and pleasant-looking
volume.

Geologists' Atsociation — A Record of Excursions
made betweefi i860 and 1890, edited by T. V. Holmes
and C. D. Sherborn (London : Ed. Stanford). We
have frequently thought, when we have received the
pithily explained and well-illustrated pamphlets sent
out to members describing the places to be visited
at each excursion, what a pity it was they were not
collected in a more permanent form. Each account
is written by a local specialist, and each diagram and
illustration is the most interesting in the district.
All: England and Wales have thus been visited by
members of the Geologists' Association during the
last thirty years. Therefore we are unexpectedly
pleased to welcome the present volume, which is just
the very thing we have so long thought ought to be
done. By its very nature, it must be the very best
field-manual of British geology yet issued. Between
two and three thousand places are referred to in the
index, and there are 214 maps and sections. Every
student of field-geology should forthwith procure this
useful work, which has been excellently edited by
Messrs. T. V. Holmes and C. D. Sherborn.

A SCIENTIFIC PLAINT.

ALAS, those happy days which we have seen
When thou, whose fickleness I now deplore
Wert like to concentrated saccharine ;

Those happy days can come to us no more.
When ardent love is strong as H, SO4.

Thou, like blue litmus in the acid test,

Whene'er we met, wouldst turn to rosy red,

And when my love undying I confessed.
Thy words were sweet as acetate of lead ;
Now truly are they changed to vitriol instead.

For, turning to analysis improper,

A quantitative test was made for gold,
And when but little else there seemed than copper
And scanty silver in the cash I hold,
Thy love grew straightway like a freezing-mixture
cold.

Entirely siliceous was thy heart ;

Thy love was gone. The sequel need I tell ?
Betrothed unto another now thou art,
Like to the atom H we know so well,
Which leaves its own Oj to join the base CI !

A. C. Deane.

THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE
THAMES VALLEY.

By Dr. A. Irving, F.G.S., &c., Wellington Coll.

{Continued Jrom p. 112.]

The Glacial Period and Since.

THE probability that England was united with the
continent of Europe during Miocene, Pliocene,
and Quaternary times, has long been recognised by
some of our leading geologists. The sea not having
cut its way as yet through the Quaternary isthmus tO'
form the present Strait of Dover, the great glaciers
of Scandinavia on the one hand, and of Northern
Britain on the other, seem to have formed by their
confluence a mighty dam, which ponded back the
waters of a vast drainage-area of Central Europe and
Southern Britain. This, at least, from a considera-
tion of all the evidence on the one side and on the
other, would appear to have been a most important
factor in the glaciation of Central and Southern
England. The facts inductively arrived at have
been well represented by the late Professor Carvill
Lewis of Philadelphia, on a map, which was printed
for Section C of the British Association, when it met
at Manchester in 1887. The moraines have been
taken as indications of the boundary of the great
northern ice-sheet ; and the extra-morainic lake,
which then covered most of the Midland and
Eastern Counties, overflowed by the Upper Avon,
line of drainage into the Severn Valley, and by the
Oxford Basin and the Pangbourne Gap into the
Thames Valley. Much work was done, no doubt,,
by the ice which floated down this narrow channel to-
widen and deepen it. Professor Prestwich* assigns
a deepening of the gorge to the extent of some 220
feet to glacial action. This is probably an excessive

"Journal Geol. Soc," \ol. xlvi., p. 149.

130

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

-estimate, for two reasons, (i) The plateau-gravels,
which cap the adjacent hills, and which he assigns
(as equivalents in time of his Mundesley and Westleton
Beds) to the beginning of the Quaternary period,
may be merely terrestrial deposits of the Pliocene
Mercian river-system, and more nearly equivalent in
time to the plateau-gravels of Berks and West
Surrey, being certainly older than the present Chalk
escarpment ; (2) the extent to which the gorge has
since been cut down to its present level, appears,

/rem still more recently-published observations to be
greater than he has estimated.* We may, perhaps,

•deduct 100 feet at least from his estimated 220

is maintained in a most remarkable manner through
the contortions of the strata. Examples may be seen
in the railway-cuttings at Wokingham and Sunning-
hill, on the South-Western Railway ; but the finest
by far have been lately brought to light in the
excavations in the brick-yard of Messrs. T. Lawrence
& Sons, close to the Nine-mile Ride in Old Windsor
Forest.* Some of the best of these are gone for
ever, as the pits have been extended ; but, fortu-
nately for science, photographs were secured by
members of the photographic section which has been
recently started by the Natural History Society of
Wellington College. One of them, it is hoped,

Fig. 106. — Section of Glaciated Clays and Gravel at Easthampstead, Berks, in Old Windsor Forest (March, 1891).

■feet, as the vertical measurement of the work of

• erosion during the Glacial Period.

Professor Carvill Lewis estimated that the waters
of the above-named extra-morainic lake stood some

1250 feet above the present sea-level in the old Thames
Straits of the Glacial Period. Now it is a remark-
able fact that at very near this elevation — that is to

■ say, at levels varying from 220 to 240 feet — the author
has, within the last year or two, made a considerable
number of observations of glacial action in East Berks.
The laminated clays are highly contorted, and great
masses of sand and gravel, weighing in some cases

jnany tons apiece, have been driven bodily, in a solid
(frozen) state, f into the clays, the lamination of which

* See reference below to Mr. Shrubsole's paper.

+ See "Journal of the Geol. Soc," vol. xlvi., p. 561.

will be reproduced for publication by the Geo-
logists' Association of London. Subjoined is a
later photograph of a section, now also obliterated,
and only exposed to open daylight for a few days
in March, 1891. (See Fig. 106.) It was taken
by one of the author's pupils, Mr. McClintock, of
Wellington College. Copies of the earlier photo-
graphs were exhibited at the lecture, and some of
them have found their way to the Woodwardian
Museum at Cambridge, and to the British Association.
A little reflection will show that these marks of
ancient glaciation, probably the work of pack-ice, as
it was drifted and stranded by high winds on the
margin of the old Thames Straits, may be taken as a

* A suggestion of Dr. J. W. Spencer, the State Geologist
of Georgia, when on a visit to the author last year.

HA RD WICKE'S S CIENCE-G OSSIP.

137

*neasure, until we obtain evidence of undoubted
•glacial action at higher altitudes, of the extent to
which the higher and secondary valley-system of the
Thames Basin proper had been carved out in pre-
glacial times, the work done representing, in fact,
in Berks and Surrey nearly 200 feet of vertical erosion,
■due to ordinary rain and river action. This will
be better understood from the generalised section
'{Fig. 107). All this time the erosion of the minor up-
land valleys was encroaching upon the more ancient
plateau-gravels, as well as cutting away the soft
'Bagshot strata, disinterring the flint pebbles of the
Bagshot pebble-beds with the recession of their out-
■crop, and mingling these with the sub-angular flints

during chronicle, and often enable us to detect the
progress of physical changes. Thus it is not difficult
to prove that the present aspect of the lower valley
of the Thames is very different from what it must
have been 1000 years ago. Instead of being confined
within regular banks, the river must have spread its
waters over a broad lagoon, which was dotted with
marshy islands. This is indicated by the fact that
the A.S. word ea or ey (an island) enters into the
composition of the names of many places by the
river-side, which are now joined to the mainland
by rich pastures. Such are Bermondso', Putn^j',
Battersi'^, Cherts^', Moulscj', Iffl^'. Osn^', Whit-
n^', and Ea\.on or Eton. The Abbey Church of

Woking- Tangley
ham. Cutting.

Pinewood Csesar's Broad- Chobham

Brick-yard. Camp.' moor. Ridges.

Bagshot
Heath.

Royal
0. Asylum.

N.W.

S.E.

O.D.+400'

LONDON CLAY

5^ig. 107. — Relative Levels (O. L.) of the Plateau-gravels and the Glaciated Clays by Ninemile Ride, &c. P.O. plateau-gravels ;
T.G. terrace or secondary gravels; * i mile north-east of the line of section; v, glaciation strongly marked at these two places.

derived from the plateau-gravels themselves. Thus
tier after tier of secondary or terrace-gravels has
fbeen formed, down to the present valley-floor, the
same agencies having co-operated with those of
glacial times, and continued their operations since
ithe retreat of the ice. The lower (post-glacial)
gravels of the modern valley contain, however, an
admixture of Mercian pebbles with the wreckage of
the more ancient plateau-gravels and the Eocene
pebble-beds.

The recently published researches of Mr. Allen
Brown, F.G.S.,* near Ealing, and of Mr. Shrubsole
F.G.S.jt near Reading, were briefly discussed; and
'the special interest of the position of the human
remains discovered by those two gentlemen was
pointed out. The observations which they have
T)ublished tell us (i) of the advent of man into the
Thames Valley in company with the Mammoth, the
Rhinoceros, and extinct species of Bcs, Equtis, and
Cervus, closely upon the retreat of the ice ; (ii) of
the great antiquity of his appearance here, as
indicated by the fact that the present Valley of the
Thames has been deepened since that time to the
extent of more than 100 feet at Reading, and to
the extent of 50 feet at Ealing.

Even within the limits of the Historical Period
important further changes can be traced in the
Thames Valley, if we may trust the evidence fur-
nished by those valuable linguistic " fossils " which
occur in local names.

Dr. Isaac Taylor ("Words and Places," pp.
"^iSi 236) writes :—" Local names form an en-

* "Journal Geol. Soc," vol. xlli., pp. 192 et seg.
f Ibid. vol. xlv:., pp. 582 et seg.

Westminster was built for security on Thorn<?j'
Island, and the eastern portion of the water in St.
James's Park is a ipart of that arm of the Thames,
which encircled the Sanctuary of the monks, and the
palace of the A.S. kings. The name Chels^^j: (a
contraction of chesel-ea) or shingle-island [tells that
the place was encircled by the river]. The Isle of
Thanet was as much an island as Sheppry is at the
present time."

[Erratum. — At the latest moment of printing the
May number, a mistake occurred by which the
woodcuts 84 and 85 were transposed. All our
geological readers will have detected the error, and
doubtless have already altered the Figs.]

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Dr. E. E. Klein, F.R.S. (Lecturer on physiology
at St. Bartholomew's Hospital), on April 28, began
a course of three lectures on Bacteria, their Nature
and Functions (the Tyndall Lectures) ; and Mr. PI.
Graham Harris, M. Inst. C.E,, on May 9, a course
of three lectures on the Artificial Production of
Cold.

A VBRY able and suggestive paper by Mr. A. S.
Seward appears in the last number of " The
Naturalist," entitled " Fossil Climates."

In the last number of the " Geological Magazine,"
Mr. Smith Woodward describes a new species of
Microsaurian from the Lancashire coal-measures
under the name of Hylonomus Wildi.

138

HARD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

Mr. J, F. Jenner-Weir, the well known entomo-
logist, has a capital paper in the last number of the
" Entomologist," entitled " The significance of
occasional and apparently unimportant markings in
Lepidoptera." He . thinks that some of them are
vestiges of spots and other markings which were
much more vivid in their ancestors, and therefore
that such markings may contribute towards the
phylogeny of genera.

We call the attention of our readers to Professor
Marshall's address delivered before the Birmingham
Natural History and Microscopical Society on
"Animal Pedigrees," which appears in the May
number of the " Midland Naturalist."

Among the many valuable papers on natural
history we get from the United States are the
periodical issues of Dr. Riley's, '* Insect Life," devoted
to the economy and life-habits of insects, especially
in their relations to Agriculture.

Parts Twelve and Thirteen of Wallace'si" British
Cage-birds " (London : L. Upcott Gill) maintain the
high artistic character of the preceding parts.

" The Conchologist " is the title of a new
quarterly journal, price ninepence, devoted ex-
clusively to conchology and molluscology. As our
readers are aware, this subject has grown considerably
beyond the bounds formerly assigned to it, and is now
an important contributor to the facts of practical
evolution. This new journal is edited by Mr. W. E.
Collinge. The first number looks well and promises
well.

The Liverpool scientists are plucky people. They
did not like their hightly readable and excellently
edited "Research" being given up, so they have
started another journal on pretty much the same
lines, entitled "Discovery." It is published at
threepence monthly. No. 5 is to hand, containing
papers relating chiefly to economic science.

We heartily comment, to all those whom it may
concern, the last Report of the Manchester Museum
(Owen College), issued by order of the Council.

A MOST useful and highly important pamphlet has
been issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
' ' The Pediculi and Maleophaga affecting Man and
the Lower Animals," by Professor H. Osborn. It
is illustrated by forty-two of the parasites whose life-
histories are described.

The Whit-week excursion of the members of the
Geologists' Association this year was to the
neighbourhood of Northampton, under the able
leadership of Mr. Beeby Thompson, F.G.S., and
Mr. W. D. Crick. Among the places visited were
Wooton (Great Oolite, Inferior Oolite, and Upper
Lias), Hopping Hill (basement-beds of Great Oolite

limestone and Upper Estuarine beds). New Duston
(Inferior Oolite), Kislingbury, Bugbrook (Middle
Lias, &c.), Stowe-Nine-Churches (Great and Inferior
Oolites), Heyford, Upton, Old Duston, Vigo,.
Shittlewell, Kingthorpe (Lower Estuarine sands and
plant-bed) Pitsford, Spratten, Baughten, Moulten,.
&c.

MICROSCOPY.

A Microscopical Puzzle. — I was examining a
glass slide under my microscope, containing some
sections of the green berry of Tatnus communis, which
I preserved in 1889, by placing the specimens in
gum-arabic between two glass slips. I now perceive-
many small ovoid transparent bodies, several were
larger than the rest and could move slowly from place
to place. What is the name and the cause of their
appearance ? Could they have come with gum-
arabic ? They do not seem to damage the specimen
in the least, although they must certainly eat some-
thing. They are about one-sixth of an inch long^
when magnified forty diameters. This specimen is-
quite dry. — Henry E. Griset.

Mounting Corallines for the Microscope. —
In answer to this query in No. 316 of SciENCE-GossiP..
I beg to inform your correspondent jvnd others
interested in the study of fresh and salt-water
Microfauna of a very reliable method of mounting
Hydrozoa with all parts fully and naturally expanded.
I have applied it particularly to Rotifers, Infusoria,,
and Hydrae, and can recommend it "where all other
means have failed." It is best to place a few twigs of
the fresh corallines containing living specimens into a
very deep watchglass placed upon black paper, with,
very little of the water they have developed in.
Allow all the animals to expand, and examine with a
pocket-lens, if necessary, to ascertain when this has
taken place. Then with a pipette add to the water
in the watchglass a few drops of chloroform water.
As soon as this is felt by the hydrozoa they draw in
their tentacles, etc. However, if not too much of
the anaesthetic has been given, and a little time
allowed for it to evaporate, they will re-expand all
their parts, at first only partly, but ultimately to
their original extent. If rotifers are treated thus, the
reviving of the individuals can be noticed by the
drowsy motion of a few isolated cilia which begin
their play again, at first very slowly, but gradually
more and more vigorously. This stage is not the
least interesting part of the experiment ; it wili
enable the attentive observer to watch with greater
ease every motion of the minute animals, take
sketches of, and even photograph them. The treat-
ment with chloroform water must necessarily be
repeated by every one who makes the experiment for
the first time, to let him know how often the hydrozoa
will stand the effects of chloroform, and to give hina

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

139

"for future experiments an approximate idea of the
.proper moment when the death-blow is to be given.
The latter consists in pouring over the weakened,
but still expanded animals, a hot or cold saturated
solution of corrosive sublimate. To make its action
still more effective it is advisable to withdraw
beforehand as much of the water in the watchglass as
possible, leaving just enough to keep the hydrozoa
fully expanded. This method of fixing all sorts of
^mall fish or saltwater inhabitants needs a little
practice, but it teaches a great deal in an experi-
mental way, and secures more truly satisfactory
Jesuits than many of the other methods recom-
mended, some of which I shall mention at some
future time. After the material has been fixed by
'the described chloroform-sublimate method, it should
'be mounted in a cell {not a metal cell) with corrosive
sublimate. Glycerine is not suitable at all, and
balsam only if stains, such as Dr. Beale's carmine
and iodine green (used successively to produce a
•double stain) have been used. For balsam-mounts
the animals must be gradually dessicated in alcohol,
placed or dropped with a pipette upon oil of cloves,
<never use turpentine for such objects) and when they
have completely sunk mount them in balsam. I
shall not return to the study and cultivation of
rotifers, hydrozoa, etc., as it would lead too far, and
I shall refer to this subject at a future opportunity. —
C. O. Sonntagt Glasgow.

New Slides.— Mr. Fred. Knock's slides are
always welcome. They are not only well mounted,
and the objects interesting, but they deal with some
new phase of entomological discovery or research,
so that both specialists and amateur naturalists can
hardly do without them in their cabinets. The latest
things Mr. Enock has sent out are connected with a
subject to which he has devoted much special
research — the natural history of insect-egg parasites.
One preparation contains three eggs of Fsocus, each
containing a tiny parasitic fly {Alaptus mini7iius)
ready to emerge. The parent parasite had laid the
egg in each of the affected eggs, and the young larva
had there found sufficient nutriment to allow its
^oing through all its transformations there. Another
preparation contains a specimen of Alaptus minimus
which Mr. Enock bred from the egg. The exquisite
beauty of these specimens must be seen to be
appreciated. From Mr. E. Hinton we have also
received two highly interesting and beautifully
mounted .marine objects for microscopical examina-
tion and study. One is a fine specimen of the sea-pen
or "cock's comb" {Pmnatula phosphorcus), with all
the tentacles fully extended and surrounded and
strengthened by bundles of acicular spiculae. When
seen on a dark ground this is a most exquisite
specimen. Mr. Hinton's other preparation is a
beautifully mounted palate of a South Australian
mollusc {Fkasianella Ausira/is).

ZOOLOGY.

NOTHOLCA AcuMlN.'i.TA.— On March 27th, I
found a specimen of this rare Rotiferon in water
taken from a clear ditch on Hayton Common, near
Retford. The concave shape, as it turned on its
side, was very marked. I was only able to find one
specimen, although I took numerous dips. The
only habitat given in Dr. Hudson's book is "Orna-
mental Waters near London." — J?. Clark.

SoLWAY Fishery. — Mr. J. J. Armistead in his
circular (season 1S90-91), mentions the following
interesting "items" : — "A black-headed gull {Larits
ridibundus, settled on one of the ponds, when a large
trout 'went for him,' probably taking him for a fly,
and broke his leg. The bird was afterwards found
dead." " The trout in the ponds have often been
seen to rise at swallows as the birds skimmed over
the surface, but the fish is a bad flying shot and has
never been seen to hit ane." " A large dog jumped
into one of the ponds and had a hot time of it
amongst the fish." Mr. Armistead has forwarded a
consignment of ova to Natal, during the past season,
which is reported as arriving there in splendid con-
dition. He is now cultivating aquatic plants, shell-
fish (mollusca), and crustaceans ; especially fresh-
water shrimp, for stocking fish-ponds." His circular
says : "It is now a well-ascertained fact that the
famous Gillaroo, and some other very fine breeds or
varieties of trout, owe their reputation to the food on
which they live ; and that food has been ascertained
to be shell-fish. I have met with instances in which
trout supplied from this fishery have grown with
great rapidity, and in three years, or less, have
attained a weight of about four pounds, and these,
on dissection, have been found to be gorged with
shell fish." I have myself taken trout of which the
crop has been found to be full of the common black
water snail, many of the shells being crushed into
fragments ; but I do not know if this crushing has
been done with the mouth of the fish or after the
arrival of the shells in the crop.— Z^w. Winder,
A.M.I.C.E.

A Partly Scalarid Specimen of Helix
AsPERSA FROM WEST KENT. — In a batch of shells
sent to me for naming by Mr. J. R. Longhurst, from
Dodington in Kent, I find an interesting Subscala-
riform monstrosity of Helix aspersa. The word sub-
scalariform fully explains the character of the shell
and any further description seems hardly necessar)\
Of course it is not so completely scalarid as the well-
known specimen in the: Natural-History Museum, but
it is interesting as showing a " half-way house,"
between the contour of that shell and the contour of
the type. The shell is bodily small ; its height is
25 mill. ; and its breadth 15 mill.— y. IV. Williams.

I40

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Classificatory Position of the Mollusca. —
In answer to Dr. P. Q. Kegan's query on p. 95, ante,
as to why the Molluscan phylum is placed higher up
on the zoological scale than that of the Annulosa, I
think the chief reason is that of the nervous system,
which shows greater concentration and, in the
majority of the higher forms at least, is chiefly localised
in the head as an oesophageal ring. In the lipocephala
the head region has atrophied in adaptation to a
"sessile inactive life" (Article "Mollusca" in
Professor Lankester's " Zoological Articles," p. 102,)
and taken all together, the Mollusca, in structure and
embryological history, show a decided advance on
the Arthropoda and Echinodermata, considering that
the ancestor of both these three phyla is common to
all, and to be sought in one of the simple worms. If
Dr. Kegan will read the articles on the Annulosa
and Mollusca in the last edition ;of the " Encyclo-
predia Britannica," I think he will very quickly come
the conclusion that the present systematic position
of the Mollusca is the only true one. — J. W.
Williams.

Erratum. — In my note on "A new variety of
Helix Cantiana " (p. i ijanle), about half a millimetre
"should read" adove half a millimetre.— y. IF.
Williams.

Mounting Shells.— I cannot "advise" Miss
Priest on this subject, not knowing what other
substances are used in mounting, but a very good
material is formed by equal weights of gum arable
and gum tragacanth dissolved in water to the
consistency of very thick paste. Hundreds of shells
were mounted in this way in the British Museum.
Shells even of considerable size can be easily set in
any position in a bed of the gum. Dissolve the gum
arable in water, making it very thin. Pour this on
the gum tragacanth, which swells considerably, and
as it swells stir and add water, if necessary. Add a
few drops of essential oil to prevent mould. The
paste is most useful for general purposes. Caution
is desirable in giving it away, every friend to whom
I have ever given a pot has required that the supply
should be kept up for the term of his natural life. —
G. T. Staveley.

Local Conchological Society. —May I suggest
to LJ.S. that it would add largely to the value of the
work of his Conchological Society if a rule were made to
preserve (if possible, mounted as microscopic objects)
the tongues of all the mollusca whose shells are
taken. The study of shells alone has now very much
given place to that of the animals themselves with
their shells, and the tongues are valuable in distin-
guishing genera. They will keep for years simply
dried. Any members of the Society unable to
mount them, might present them, with the shell laid
out dry. by its side, for the use of students of the
mollusca. — G. T. Slavdey.

BOTANY.

Notes on Vegetable Teratology. — Since
much has been written of late concerning floral
monstrosities, the following notes from my log-book
on some which came under my notice a few years ago-
may be found interesting to such who have turned
their attention to the science of teratology. In the
summer of 18S6 I found an isolated plant of Campanula
rotu7idifolia growing in a shaded nook near Hampstead
Heath, with a flower having the corolla divided into
five distinct petaloid segments ; the flower was-
found to be homogamous. The gamopetalous flowers
of Campanula are decidely dichogamous, and further
the vascular system of the corolla does not exhibit
that of separate segments cohering by their respective
edges, for the veins are found to ramify and anastomose
all over the space between each contiguous dorsal
rib in such a manner as to render any line of cohesion--
extinct. This dialysis must be regarded as retro-
gressive, a reversion to some primordial and less
specialized condition, owing perhaps to the scarcity
or entire absence of bees, correlated with the
combined influences of temperature and the im-
poverished condition of the soil in which the plant
grew. On November 7th, 1S86, I saw a plant of
Angreecum sesquipedale bearing two flowers with
exceedingly large nectariferous spurs. The spurs of the-
flowers measured respectively 16 and lyj inches in
length. The other parts of the flowers were found to
be in a normal condition and of the usual size. The
cause of the monstrous condition'of these spurs was pro-
bably due to the unusually high temperature to which,
the plant had been subjected, and it is not an unfeasible
presumption to suppose that as the nectariferous spurs
are regarded as having originated through irritation
set up by insect visitors, that an unusually high
temperature would induce an additional flow of
nutrition to those parts that are already hypertrophied-
through heredity. During the year of 18S8 several:
teratological specimens came under my notice. I
found two flowers of Sempervivum arachnoideum in
which the margins of the anther cells bore from four
to six ovuliferous processes. I also found three
flowers of three different species of Begonia with-
stigmatiferous and ovuliferous stamens, and one flower
in which the stigma was antheriferous. I also took
note of several cases in which anthers occupied the
place of the stigma, (i) A flower of Campanula
medium in which four anthers occupied the position of
the stigma. (2) A flower of GalaniJms 7iivalis having
two anthers in place of the stigma. (3) A term inal'
flower of Digitalis purpjtrea having six fertile stamens
and no pistil ; the two short stamens reaching
maturity first, the two intermediate following, and
finally the two largest. I saw on a plant of Aquilegia
(var. ?) growing in my garden a flower with two spurs,
bearing rudimentary ovules, and three of the stamens.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

141

■yfcre stigmatiferous and ovuliferous. The probable
■cause of the above-mentioned abnormalities I believe
to have been largely due to environments, and the
•following notes on Fritillaria melcagris and a variety
oi Mintuhis tend somewhat to support this conclusion.
In Apiil of the same year I obtained a bulb of
fritillaria from its native haunt, the bulb was re-
planted and rested, and it bloomed again in the
following year at the end of March, The perianth of
the flower was campanulated, but considerably smaller
•than that of the previous year, the stamens were meta-
morphosed into petals, and one crumpled petal very
broad at the base occupied the position of the pistil.
The plant before flowering had been kept in a dry
atmosphere, and a somewhat dry and poor soil. I
•purchased last year a pot of Mimulus (var. ?) from a
•street stall, and on bringing it home it was allowed to
remain in the dry warm atmosphere of a room ; when
the new flowers opened they were found to be much
smaller, and had lost the delicate salmon tint for
which I had been induced to purchase it. A few
days after the plant was removed to the greenhouse,
and after a lapse of five weeks new flowers developed
and were characterized by the colour, size and shape
of those expanded when I purchased the plant. —
J. H. A. Hicks, F.R.H.S.

HuTCHiNSiA PETR^A. Hooker (3rd. Ed. 1884)
states that this pretty little Cruciferous plant is to be
found in Eltham Churchyard, where it has been
naturalised, having been planted, it is supposed, by
Dillenius. Has any reader of Science-Gossip found
it there within recent years ? I have made a careful
search for it this spring but have failed to find it,
and therefore imagine it to be extinct. — W. B.,
Flumsiead.

Variation of Colour in Plants. — Having
read Mr. Jones' interesting notes on the " Variation
of Colours in Plants," I think the following observa-
tions made last autumn when staying at Carr Bridge,
Tnverness-shire, may perhaps be of some interest.
The season was an extraordinarily good one from a
Botanical point of view, the heather far above the
average, every tree and shrub being covered with
blossom or fruit, the currant and gooseberry trees
had their lower branches dragged down to the ground
by the unusual weight of fruit, and the raspberries
lasted from about the 15th of August to the same
date in September. Wild flowers too, were very
fine and numerous, especially "the blue bells of
Scotland" (^Campanula rotundijlord) occurring for
the most part on grassy slopes and the outskirts of
corn-fields, where they exhibited great variety both
in size and colouring, varying from a deep purple to
a very pale blue ; the contrast, however, was greatest
in size, some plants preferring quality to quantity,
bearing three or four bells per stalk nearly an inch in
depth, while others bore double the number but only
a quarter of the size. With regard to the white

variety I found but two examples, one on the edge of
an oat-field, the other at a burn side. Both were fine
plants, bearing eight and five bells respectively of a
beautiful creamy-white colour. I have met with
this variety in several counties, and though of rare
occurrence it appears to be generally distributed over
Scotland. The common scabious {Knautia arvensis)
was very plentiful and of every shade between purple
and snow white, the same plants frequently bearing
flowers of different tints, one specimen had two
flowers on the same stalk, one normal, the other
dwarf and about three quarters of the way up the
main stem, to which it was attached at right angles
by a small pedicle. This species rarely occurs above
an altitude of 1,000 feet, thriving best in moist grassy
situations. The most abundant plant and the most
striking in its colour eiTects was the common heather
or ling {Erica vulgaris), which, clothing as it does,
miles of hill-side and moorland with its lovely purple
bloom, constitutes one of the greatest charms of
Highland scenery. This species is by no means
constant in its colouring, there being at least three
distinct varieties : (i) purple inclined to mauve ;
(2) purple inclined to carmine ; (3) pure white,
which last is very rare and when young hard to
distinguish from variety (l), the buds of the latter
being almost colourless, save a faint pinkish tinge at
their base. I have found it on every moor visited,
only, however, in small sprigs amongst miles of the
ordinary type. After flowering, the heather siill
serves a number of purposes, being used for brooms,
thatching, making beds for the poor, and heating
ovens. It is considered lucky to find the white
variety. The cross-leaved heath {E, tetralix) is, I
think, the prettier flower of the two, though its beauties
are not so obvious until we raise its modestly hanging
head, which at once reveals the wealth of colour
displayed in the shading of its delicate bells. These
being carmine-coloured at the base, make the flower
apparently darker than it is, the bells being in reality
quite wliite at their mouths and increasing in colour
towards the base. This species grows plentifully in
peat-bogs and other moist situations on the moors,
being generally found in clumps, getting rather
straggling above an altitude of 3,000 feet. It is not
apparently subject to much variation, though last
August I had the good fortune to light on a clump,
bearing white flowers ; not a pale transparent, but
an opaque creamy-white ; there were over thirty
blooms, the roots soaking in water. Never having
heard of this variety before, I should very much like
to know whether any reader of " Science Gossip"
has met with it ? The common purple heath
{E. cinerca) is the least abundant of the three men-
tioned, being only found on bare rocky ground and
the faces of cliffs, where comparatively little moisture
accumulates, and is not subject to variation in colour.
It occurs at an altitude of 4,000 feet very stunted,
about 2,5co suits it best, where I have taken speci-

142

HARD WICKKS SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

mens nearly a foot long, having at least six inches
surrounded with bloom. I have not heard of a
white variety. The mosses were well represented ;
on the moors, by the common club moss {Lycopodiitm
clavatnm), called there, "stag's horn moss," and the
Alpine club moss (Z. alpiniim) ; and on rocks,
boulders, &c. by Dicrannm scoparinm and D.
Botijeanni. The peat-bogs and water-holes were
full of innumerable water-plants and mosses, most of
them unknown to me, forming a carpet of wonderful
beauty in pattern and colouring, such a one as only
Nature's pencil could design or her brush enliven
with its lovely shades of yellow, green, pink, and
purple ; truly an enticing seat, but to say the least of
it, " just a wee saft." I recognised here the following
species of Sphagnum, S. cy7?ibifolinm, S. rigidiim,
S. Austmi, and several other specimens I was unable
to identify. Parnassus grass {Parnassia palustris),
the two cotton grasses {Eriophorum vaginatum and
E. polystachu7)i) and the fragrant sweet gale {Myrica
gale) wert abundant, greatly adding to the beauty and
attractiveness of the spot. In dryer situations, cran-
berries [Oxycoccics palustris) and crowberries or crake-
berries i^Empetriim nigrum) grew abundantly amidst
the heather, the latter in black shining clusters of five
or six, or singly along the small-leaved stems, and were
quite as conspicuous as their larger-leaved neighbours,
indeed, growing as most of these do right down
under, the leaves, it is no wonder they so rarely ripen,
the average colour being scarlet above and white
below, even when ripe they are dry and tasteless, a
contrast to the very juicy and not unpleasantly
flavoured crowberries ; both, however, are very
inferior to the purple bilberry or blayberry ( Vacci-
?iiitm myrtillus) also called blowberry, so plentiful in
woods. From a distance perhaps, a Scotch moor
does not appear a very promising field for the
botanist, but on coming to close quarters, the great
wealth and variety of vegetable life is truly astonish-
ing, and I feel sure anyone spending even a few
hours in studying these moorland wonders, will be
amply repaid for so doing. — D. II. S. Stewart.

GEOLOGY, &C.

The North-West of England Boulder Com-
mittee.— A society under this title has been formed
for the study of the glacial phenomena of the North-
West of England, North Wales, and the Isle of Man.
It has been in existence only two months, but already
numbers fifty-two members, amongst whom may be
reckoned some of the best-known glacial geologists
of the North of England. The society is about to
publish shortly a handbook for the guidance of its
members in the methods of observing glacial pheno-
mena. Meetings are held once a month, and the
society is peripatetic, like the British Association.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

A White Toad. — We are accustomed to keep'
one or two toads in the greenhouse, for the purpose
of keeping off injurious insects. One of these animals
was put in about four months ago, and has turned a
light yellowish white. The temperature of the house
ranges from about 50° to 70° Fahr. Is it the heat
that has brought about this curious change ? — IV. H.
Styfafig.

Bats flying in Sunlight. — On April 15th,,
1 89 1, I was very much surprised to see a small bat
flying about in full daylight. I watched it for some
time, and on April iSth I and a friend of mine went
to the same field and saw two bats. The sun was
shining brightly on both mornings, and both times it
was after li a.m. The two were busy when we left,
at nearly i p.m. — D. M. Higgins, '93 Wellington-
Street, Luton.

Bats in Daylight. — In answer to Mr. J. E.
Taylor's note about bats flying in broadidaylight, I find
the following note in my journal, " I witnessed a
curious sight on Sunday, February 15th (1891), the day-
being bright but cold, on coming out of church just
before one, a pair of bats (? species) flying about as if
it had been twilight, although as a matter of fact the-
sun was shining brightly." This was at Harlington,
Middlesex.—//. J. Toipey.

Society for the S.E. District. — Would any.
gentlemen residing in the S.E. district, who are
willing to join a small society,' for mutual and practical'
study, and field-work send their names and addresses
to Mr. L. O. Grocock, 13 Lower Maryon Road,.
Charlton, S.E. The subscription would be small,
and workers in all branches of Natural History would
be welcomed.

Variations of Colour in Plants. — Among the
plants liable to variations of colour I have seen no-
mention of Bartzia odontites, white specimens of
which are frequent by the roadside at South Weald
and Navestock in Essex. The soil is a stiff clay. —
Norris F. Davey, Abergavenny.

Swallows destroying their Young. — The
philosopher Kant one day was passing a certain
building in his daily walk, and on looking up, he
discovered as he fancied that the old birds were
actually throwing their young ones out of the nests..
It was a season remarkable for the scarcity of insects,
and the birds were apparently sacrificing some of
their progeny to save the rest. — III. A.

Bats in Daylight. — On the 27th April I saw a
large bat flying over the river Medvvay between 12.
o'clock and i p.m., a warm, but not very bright day,
A few days before a little bat was seen by several
people flying near the edge of a wood down in the
Weald, at midday. Can it be scarcity of insects that
brings the bats out at unusual hours ? — -31. E, Pope.

Early appearance of the Cuckoo. — The
cuckoo was heard on the Barmouth Hills on the
2Sth of March. Some people say they heard him in
the same direction a week before that date. — 3f. E. T.,.
Barmouth, N. Wales.

The Two Sides of the Medal.— It seems to me
that a great deal of what Mrs. Bodington remarked
on this subject is difficult to controvert. Everybody
knows that certain diseases acquired during the life-

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

143

lime of the parent are hereditary in the offspring, and
lience the jealous care exercised by families and the
state to prevent the diseases in question, being com-
municated to the healthy. J. W. Baylis, says the
whole question hinges on whether these diseases be
acquired or congenital. There are many diseases
peculiar to man that must, at all events, have been
acquired during the lifetime of the race. Not to talk
of diseases the result of immorality, there must have
been a time when neither drunkenness nor suicide were
manifest. I believe the earlist tendency to a
hereditary love of alcoholic spirits arose from our first
ancestors who began to indulge too freely, and not
from the temperate and moderate. In saying this I
know the avidity with which savages take to our
intoxicants. Most of these savages have, however,
some stimulant or narcotic of their own, less potent
than ours, which is therefore preferred. Indeed the
"building up of that degree of temperance and wisdom,
with regard to the use of stimulants, must have been
a process that has risen since distillation and fermen-
tation were invented. No doubt it would be acquired
somewhat in the lifetime of a parent, and heredity
would strengthen it. There are families whose
genealogies show us a procession of sober individuals,
just as there are others who present us with a
long succession of topers. In the same way we
might ask concerning every contagious or infectious
disease peculiar to man, or to circumstances inter-
woven with civilisation, Who took it first ? Was it
not acquired first of all in the lifetime of some in-
■dividual ? If so, then, being hereditary, it seems a
fair case for those who believe in use-inheritance. —
y. Shaw, Tynrofi, Dumfriesshire.

Trout. — The following extract is from this season's
price list of the Howietoun'Fishery, Sterling : — "The
Rainbow trout in the second generation, have proved
much more satisfactory than was anticipated (from
noting the imported ova). Where a depth of water
of eight feet or over can be obtained, and where the
fish can be confined, we now recommend them as
the quickest growers and the most beautiful salmonoid
we have yet met with. But they must have deep
water." I recently had the pleasure of turning
about 2200 Loch Leven (6". Levenensis) yearling
trout into reservoirs near here, which had been
hatched and reared by the managers of this fishery :
and I noted that although some of them were in
unchanged water for over seventeen hours, there were
only two dead fish in the tanks ; the rest were so
strong that they " cut to cover," almost before we
could get a sight of them in their new abode. — Thos.
Winder, A.M.I.C.E., Sheffield.

Cure for Bite of Mad Dog. — In searching a
number of ancient documents, I recently found the
following curious receipt, which may perhaps be of
sufficient interest to deserve a place in the pages of
Science-Gossip. I preserve the original spelling
and punctuation. "An infalliable cure for the Bite
of a mad dog brought from Tonquin by Sir George
Cobb Bart. Take 24 grains of native Cinnabor
24 grains of factitious Cinnabor and 16 grains of
INIusk ; grind all these together into an exceeding
fine powder ; and put into a small tea-cup of Arrack
rum or brandy ; let it be well mixed and give it y*
person as soon as possible after y'^ bite ; a second
dose of y° same must be repeated thirty days after ;
and a third may be taken in thirty days more, but
if the symptoms of madness appear on y*^ persons
they must take one of y' above doses immediately
and a second in an hour after, and if wanted a
third must be given a few hours afterwards. The

above receipt is calculated for a full grown person,
but must be given to children in smaller quan-
tities in proportion to their ages. This medicine
has been given to hundreds with success and Sir
George Cobb himself has cured two persons who
had y° symptoms of madness upon them. If in the
madness they cannot take in liquid, make it up into
a bolus with honey : after the two first doses, let it be
repeated every three or four hours till y° patient be
recovered. This repetition to be omitted unless
necessary. Take all imaginary care that the musk be
genuine." This mem. bears date 1760. — Thos.
Winder, A.M.I.C.E., Sheffield.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To CORRHSPONDENTS AND EXCHANGERS. — As WC nOW

publish SciKNCE-GossiP earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken oi our gratuitous
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To OUR Recent Exchangers. — We are willing and helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

W. M. Osmond. — The micro-photo of the articular process
foimd on the body of an Indian caterpillar is very remarkable.
We should advise you to send a photo to Mr. Beddard, Pro-
sector, Zoological Society.

Miss R. — You will find a good description of how to bleach
and prepare skeleton leaves, seed-vessels, &c., in the volume of
SciENCE-Gossip for 1873.

C. S. — Get " Notes on Collecting and Preparing Natural
History Objects," edited by J. E. Taylor, published by W. H.
Allen & Co., y. dd. Also all the vols. (2^'. 6d. each, 8 in
number) of "The Fauna and Flora of the British Islands,"
published by the S.P.C.K., except those you name. "The
Playtime Naturalist" (London; Chatto, 55.) will help you
considerably. " Elementary Microscopic Manipulation," by
T. C. White.—" Half-hours with the Microscope," by Dr.
Lankester (W. H. Allen, ^s. 6d.).

S. A. Chambers. — The specimen you sent us was 'a some-
what dwarfed var. of the purple dead nettle [Lamiuat pur-
pur euni).

P. T.— Apply to Messrs. W. Wesley & Son, Essex Street.
Strand, who keep all sorts of secondhand scientific .books on
all sorts of subjects.

R. W. — Get Mr. F. Enock's list of entomological prepara-
tions, with the descriptions accompanying them, published
two or three years ago by him.

We are informed that a Rambler's Field Club for the South-
west of London is now in course of formation. Apply for
information to Mr. W. Andrews, Landseer Street, Batter-
sea, S.W.

R. M. S. — The " Diatomiste " may be obtained of J. Tempere,
168 Rue St. Antoine, Paris ; price of each number, 4^.

T. Brown (Bolton). — The matrix of the fragment of mill-
stone grit is chiefly a partly decomposed felspar. There is also
a secondary deposit of silica.

EXCHANGES.

Wanted, living British spiders. Micro preparations given
in exchange. — John Rhodes, Blackburn Road, Accrington.

Wanted, to exchange foreign postage stamps with moderate
collectors of from looo to 2000. Also, what offers in stamps
for collection of British butterflies and moths, about 650 speci-
mens, in good condition? — Stanley Morris, School Hill, Lewes,
Sussex.

Wanted, foreign shells and unmounted diatoms, polycistines,

144

BA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IF.

forams, &c., in exchange for choice micro-sUdes of every
description, and British marine shells. Foreign correspondence
solicited.— R. Suter, 5 Highweek Road, Tottenham, London.

Offered, books. "Elementary Chemistry," "Elementary
Physics," "Practical Chemistry," "Inorganic Chemistry,"
" Elements of Acoustics," " Our World, its Rocks and Fossils,"
" Livre des Versions," "German Grammar," " School Hist, of
England," and a number of similar books of instruction. Offers
wanted in other books, shells, stamps, or garden requisites. —
Mrs. Heitland, The Priory, Shrewsbury.

"Gardening Illustrated," in seven volumes, 1884-90, un-
bound. What offers in scientific or other books?— A. B.,
Advertiser Office, Chepstow, Mon.

Trinidad Icpidoptera offered for a good classified list of
lepidoptera — Kirby preferred. — \V. E. Broadway, Royal
Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, B.W.I.

Offered, good botanical microscopic slides, for books on
botany or microscopy.— J. Collins, i^j Muntz Street, Bir-
mingham.

Eggs of British ducks and other birds, wanted in exchange
for nests and eggs.— W. Gyngell, 28 Wesiborough, Scar-
borough.

Wanted, cleaned diatoms, foraminifera and polycistina,
volvox and other freshwater algs in vials, insects' eggs, podura,
lepisma, fleas, sawflies, cockchafers, large water-beetles, and
other insects. State requirements in exchange. — Henry
Ebbage, Framlingham, Suffolk.

Duplicates. — Trochiis striatus, Pupa riiigens, hlelatiia
sp., liUirex acictdatus. Purpura hcentastotna, Nclicina beryl-
Una (?), Littorina scutulata, Acinaa spectruvi, and others.
Desiderata, exotic mollusca, especially land shells. — Brockton
Tomlin, The Green, Llandaft".

Clausilia Rolfikti [ver'Aed. by Mr. Th. Cockerell) from a new
Kentish locality, in exchange for other not common British
land and freshwater shells.— Rev. J. W. Horsley, Woolwich.

Science-Gossip, numbers 157 to 205, unbound. Exchange
for geological lantern-slides, or offers. — J. T. Cook, Edina,
Stoneygate, Leicester.

Helix effulgens, H. calcadeiisis, H. inpeina, H. achatina,
H. plectostojjia, H. attaranensis, H. textrina, H. scalpturita,
Bulimus doinina, B. Nevilliana, B. Beddomiana, offered in
exchange for other land or for marine shells. Pecteii bifrons,
P. plica, P. le»iniscatus, in exchange for other species of pecten.
— Miss Luter, Arragon Close, Twickenham.

Offered, eggs of lapwing, moorhen, razorbill, curlew,
missel-thrush, ring dove, rook, black-headed and lesser black-
backed gull, coot, sedge warbler, lesser redpoll, &c., also
Science-Gossip, unbound, for 1890. Wanted, eggs of raven,
switt, ruff, nightjar, hawfinch, kite, goshawk, &c. — G. Nichol-
son, 3 Crown Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Offered, Beale's " Micro, in Medicine ;" Berkeley's
" Introd. to Cryptogamic Botany," in first-class binding;
Baker's "Employment for the Microscope," with all the
original plates; "Alternation of Generations" (Stenstrup),
Ray Soc. ; pure gathering of batrachiosperma for mounting.
Wanted, "Journal of Microscopy and Nat. Science" for last
three years (vols. 6, 7, and 8), bound, works on freshwater
algae, rhizopods, &c. — J. E. Lord, Rawtenstall.

Lantern slides (photos, statuary, &c.), wanted in exchange
for first-class micro objects. — F. E. Hillman, i Harcourt Road,
Wallington, Surrey.

Wanted, British land or freshwater shells, or any books
relating to same. Will give micro material or slides, or foreign
stamps in exchange. — A. AUetsee, i South Villas, Kensington
Road, Redland, Bristol.

Finely preserved sea-urchins (E. sphxra) with spines — M.
incurva, pellucida, T. /abula, J\I. snbtruncata, S. ensis, T.
papyracea, H. pcllucidum, T. testudinalis, H. vlvic, A . cygnea
(Scotch), ^. corneum, var. pisidiodes, P./ontiuah; P. pusillum,
S. clegaiis, H. netnoralis, var. rubella, &c., offered for British
or foreign shells, or lepidoptera. — T. Paterson, 59 Hazelbank
Terrace, Edinburgh.

Wanted, Leda caudata, Natica helicoides, Pleuroioma
striolata. Vertigo moulinsia>ta, var. pusilla. Will anyone
oblize me with any in return for any of the following rare
shells : Cyclostrema serpuloides, Scalaria clathrat:ila, Eulima
bilincata, Odostoinia nivosa, and others. — T. E. Sclater, Bank
Street, Teignmouth.

Wanted, land and freshwater shells of fossils from any
formation not im collection, in exchange for Aiicylus lacustris,
Planorbis vortex, P. carinatus, Limnica glaber, L. stagnalis,
L. peregra, Spkarum corneutn, Physa Jontinalis, Helix
Jiortensis, H. pomatia, H. hispida, Clausilia rugosa, Pholas
Candida, and others. — R. D. Laurie, 19 Willow Bank Road,
Birkenhead.

Offered, Phillips' "Metallurgy," Phillips' "Geology,"
Catlow's " Conchology," Lardner's "Natural Philosophy,"
&c. (list sent), in exchange for secondary fossils. Address —
M., 56 Clarendon Villas, Brighton.

Wanted, foreign shells not in collection, more especially
helices and bulimi. Offered, other shells. Foreign corre-
spondence invited. — G. R. Sykes, 13 Doughty Street, London,

W.C.

Hairs and spines of sea-mouse, in exchange for micro-fungi,
unmounted material. — A. Montague, Penton, Crediton.

Ularginella glabella (from Mazagan), Haliotts iuberculata
(Mazagan), Helix potnatia (Switzerland). Exchange foreign
shells not in collection. — L. Montague, Penton, Crediton.

Proctor's "Star Atlas," and " Half-Hours with the Stars,"
offered in exchange for books on microscopy. Also Hydra
vulgaris and Melicerta ringens for Hydra viridis, — W. F.
Kelsey, Maldon.

Dredgings and good drift wanted, containing shells, &c.,
from the fo'lowing places: coast of Scilly, Guernsey, Scotch
Isles, North Sea, Irish coast, near Cork, and from the entrance
to the Bristol Channel. Good exchange given. — A. J. R.
Sclater, M.C.S-, 23 Bank Street, Teignmouth, South Devon.

Offered, Scienck-Gossip, unbound, clean, complete, 14
vols., 1S76 to 1889. Wanted, algological or botanical books,,
or other exchange. — T. H. Buffham, A.L.S., Comely Bank
Road, Walthamstow.

Several hundred British lepidoptera, in exchange for out-
door plants, roses, and ferns. — W. H. T., in Queen's Road,
Portsmouth.

Huxley's " Physiogr.aphy," Nos. 245 to 291 of Science-
Gossip, and entomological collecting and preserving apparatus,
in exchange for science books or micro-slides. — W. E. Watkins,
30 Dalmeny Road, Tufnell Park, London, N.

Offered, Cassell's "Natural History," Parts i to 8, new
edition now appearmg. — Chas. Leigh, 47 Sydney Street,
London, S.W.

Wanted, nests of goldfinch, long-tai'ed tit, golden-crested
wren, and redpole, during the season. Eggs, shells, or
lepidoptera offered in exchange. — William Hewen, 12 Howard
Street, Fulford Road, York.

" Nature," in weekly numbers, unbound, for the year 18S2,
three numbers missing ; 1883, five numbers missing ; 1S84, com-
plete, in exchange for British land and freshwater shells. —
T. Place, 50 Townend Street, York.

Science-Gossip, in parts, from January, 1887, to December,
1890. Offers requested in foraminiferous material, papers on
the foraminifera, or good micro-slides. — A. Earland, 3 Eton
Grove, Dacre Park, Lee, S.E.

Wanted, British land and freshwater shells. Can offer in
exchange Pupa secale, Carychiutn minimum, &c. Address —
H. T. Smith, 11 Oakfield Place, Clifton, Bristol.

Wanted, a few British mosses ; will give slides, &c., in
exchange. Address — T. B., Conservative Club, Hinckley.

Wanted, a good li-inch objective, or a section cutter, in
exchange for bound vols, of "Journal of Royal Microscopical
Society," for 18S7 and 18S8.— F. Coles, 53 Brook's Road, Stoke
Newington, London.

Offered, Xylophaga dorsalis, Pholas crispata, and ]\Iya
arenaria, last two with siphons extended. Wanted, shells not
in collection. — J. Smith, Monkredding, Kilwinning.

Wanted, Bowman's "Cotton Fibre " and Porter's "Treatise
on Silk." State desiderata to R. S. Dawson, Belmont, Shipley.

Science-Gossip, from commencement to present date of
issue, what offers? — Linder, New Brompton, Kent.

BOOKS. ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.

" Coal, and What we Get from It," by R. Meldola (London :
S.P.C.K.).— "The Missouri Botanic Garden."— Fifth Report
U.S. Entomological Commission — Forest Insects," by A. S.
Packard (Washington). — "Annual Report Fruit-Grower's
Association of Ontario, 1S90." — "Colour Measurement and
Mixture," by Capt. Abney (London: S.P.C.K.).— " Tele-
scopic Work for Starlight Evenings," by W. F. Denning
(London: Taylor and Francis). — "Zoological Articles," by
Prof Lankester and Others (Edinburgh: A. and C. Black). —
"Geologists' Association — A Record of Excursions made
between i860 and 1810," edited by T. V. Holmes and C. D.
Sherborn (London: Edward Stanford). — "Discovery," No. 5.
—"The Conchologist," No. i.— "The Pedicula and Mallo-
phaga," by Prof. H. Osborn (Washington: Govt. Office). —
"Bulletin of Microscopical Society of Calcutta." — "Nature
Notes." — "American Microscopical Journal." — *'The Micro-
scope."—" American Naturalist." — " Canadian Entomologist."
—"The Naturalist."— The Botanical Gazette."— " The Gen-
tleman's Magazine."— "The Midland Naturalist."— " The
Garner." — " Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes," &c., &c.

Communications received up to the 13TH ult. from :
J. E. N.— T. S.— S. A. C— J. H. C— I. T. C— F. T. S.—
H. E. G.— W. W.— T. W.— A. C. D.— J. W. H.— L. E. A.—
M. B. M.— I. E. v.— Mrs. H.— H. E.— B. T.— E. F. S.—
M. W.— W. G.— W. H. S.— J. C— W. E. B,— J. R.— C. O. S.
— D. H. S. S.— S. M.— R. S— D. M. W.— P. F. K.-M. E. P.
—J. H. M.-H. F.— J. E. U.— P. T.— C. S.— E. B.— H. D.—
W. F. R.— J. W. W.— W. B.— F. C. M.— C. L. B. C— F. E. H.
— H. J. T.— A. H.— M. E. P.— A. A.— A. J. R. S.— T. E. S.
— R. O. L.-Miss L.— J. E. L.— N. F. D.— E. R. S.— L. M.—
A. M.— J. W. P.— G. N.— Dr. I.— J. C. H.— W. H. T.—
T. H. B.— J. H. W. H.— J. C— E. B.— T. S. B.— A. J. S.—
A. E.-J. P.— W. H.— C. L.-W. E. W.-E. H.— W. J. S.-
J. H.-J. S.— E. M.— R. S. D.— J. S.— H. E. E.— W. M. O.
— &c, &c.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

M5

GUMS, RESINS, AND BALSAMS.

By H. DURRANT.

N the following few
notes on several of
the better-known
gums and resins,
I have adopted
no systematic ar-
rangement.
Neither have I
said all I should
have liked to have
said concerning
them. But as it
was not consistent
with the room at
my disposal to
mention all their
various uses, I
have suppressed
the minor proper-
ties and given in
as few words as
possible the more interesting features.

I have endeavoured to give the name of the plant
producing each variety, together with its uses, native
country and other interesting items.

The distinctions between gums, resins and balsams
may be briefly tabulated as follows :

Resins are the inspissated or thickened juices of
plants. They are generally mixed with an essential
oil, are insoluble in water, but are soluble enough in
either alcohol or the essential oils. Their general
characters are inflammability and fusibility. Their
ultimate components are carbon, oxygen, and
hydrogen. v

Gtims are soluble in water, but are insoluble in
alcohol.

Balsams or Gum resins contain a quantity of gum,
are partly soluble in water, partly so in alcohol, or in
other words, they take bo:h alcohol and water to
perfectly dissolve them.

Gum arabic is produced by several species of
No. 319.— July 1891.

acacia. It is quite soluble in water, but in alcohol,
ether and oils it is insoluble. It forms an acid
solution, as permalate of lime is present. Several of
the metallic oxides combine with it. It is very
nutritious, so much so that the Arabs who gather it
nearly live upon it during harvest-time. We import
it from the Levant, Barbary, Senegal, Cape of Good
Hope, India, Cairo, &c.

Gum Senegal the product of Acacia Senegal. This
is the best kind of Arabian gum. It is much more
clear than gum arabic, sometimes entirely white, in
drops as large as a pigeon's egg. Its principal use is
in the manufacture of silks, muslins, crapes, &c., to
give them the requisite amount of stiffness and glaze.
It is also mixed with the colours in caUco printing to
give them solidity.

Gu7n tragacanth or gum dragon. This is obtained
from Astralagus ti-agacantha. In appearance it
resembles twisted ribbons, of a brownish whitt
colour, opaque and rather ductile. When pulverized
in a mortar it is of a white colour. The operation of
pulverizing is a difficult one, and should be performed
in a hot mortar, the gum having been previously heated
to 212° Fahr. This gum has a remarkable power of
consistence, a small piece swelling up to many times
its own size. It has not, however, such a strong
power of adhesiveness as gum arabic, but if equal
parts of the two be mixed together it forms a nice
white gum, very suitable for fastening plants to paper,
and other natural history work. The tree is itself a
native of Crete.

Gum sandarach. The product of Callitris quadri-
valvis is a native of Barbary. This gum is chiefly
used in the manufacture of varnishes, for which it
is peculiarly adapted. The Turks employ the wood
in the construction of their mosques, it being very
tough and possessing great lasting qualities. Im-
portation about fifteen tons per annum.

Barbary gum, a very dark-looking kind produced
by the Acacia gufnmifera. In the manufacture of
lozenges and confectionery it has valuable qualities.

H

140

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

It calls for no special comment. We import it from
the Morocco coast.

Gum gedda, an inferior quality of the foregoing.
Reddish colour.

Canada balsam. This is supplied by the Abies
balsamifera. It is contained in blisters in the bark.
The blisters are punctured, and the balsam is
collected as it exudes. This is a most useful sub-
stance, being in great demand in a number of manu-
factures, &c. It is used in cementing lenses together.
In microscopy comment is needless, but besides
being an excellent preservative, it gives great trans-
parency to the object. We import nearly all of it
from America.

Gitaiaaim. This resin exudes from the Giiaiacum
officifiale, a native of Jamaica and the surrounding
islands. A piece of paper treated with tincture of
guaiacum takes on a green tint under the violet rays,
when exposed to the prismatic spectrum, through
oxidization. Red rays destroy the colour. Solu-
bility, 90 per cent, in absolute alcohol. Lignum vitse,
the hardest and heaviest wood known, and which
sinks on being placed in water, is the timber of this
tree.

Copal. This is the product of several leguminous
plants in Africa, East Indies, South America, and
Australia. It is generally seen in large angular
lumps, often as large as a hen's egg, of a bright
yellow colour, and very transparent. The African
variety is of a darker colour, and not so transparent ;
its surface appears dusty. The Australian is the
largest. That from the East Indies is the product
of Hymencza coiirbaril. In lumps sometimes nearly
sqiiare and generally covered all over with slight
indentations. It is known as gum anime. Chiefly
used for fine varnishes.

Guj7t mastic^ the product of Pistacia lentiscus. In
small ovoid and round tears about the size of a pea
and rather flattened. The tree is a native of Chio
and Northern Africa. To obtain the resin the bark
is cut transversely, after which the mastic exudes in
small drops and either hardens on the bark or falls
to the ground. That which falls to the ground is
the inferior quality. It has a fragrant smell, and is
much used by the Turkish ladies in their toilet. A fine
varnish is made from it. Dentists also use it for
stopping hollow teeth. About ten or twelve tons are
imported annually, mostly from the Levant.

Gtim dammar: this is a light-coloured substance
which is obtained from the Piniis dainmara, native
in India, from whence it is exported. It is very useful
in making varnishes, especially photographic. It is
soluble in benzole, only partly so in alcohol, and is
used sometimes as a substitute for Canada balsam.

Gutn gamboge: a product of Hedyadendro7i gam-
bogioides, native on the Malabar coast and in Ceylon.
It is a gum resin, and is obtained by puncturing the
bark of the tree when the flowers begin to appear.
We know it best by its appearance in amorphous

masses, but it also takes the form of hollow rolls and
solid cylinders. The best hollow rolls come from
Siam. From this gum the beautiful yellow colour of
gamboge is manufactured.

Gtdta-percha : the inspissated juice of Isonandra
gutta. When freshly gathered it is rough, dry,
slightly soluble and very inflammable. To render it
fit for use it is immersed in boiling water ; this
softens it and makes it capable of being moulded into
any shape, which it retains when cold.

The juice is found between the bark and the
wood. Its uses are too numerous to specify, many
being too well known.

Caoutchouc, india-rubber, is the product of many
euphorbiaceous plants. We get most of it from the
Brazils and Central America. In Brazil it is
obtained from the Siphonia elastica, which grows to a
height of between fifty to sixty feet ; and in Central
America it is obtained from Castilloa elastica. Most
of that we now use comes from Central America,
where the juice is simply collected into cups, from
incisions made in the bark. To coagulate the milky
juice and convert it into rubber fit for exportation,
the juice of a vine called "achuca" is mixed with it
and so powerful is its action that five or six minutes
is sufficient to produce coagulation. The Brazilian
method slightly differs. The juice is first collected
in clay bowls, it is then smeared over various shaped
moulds, made also in clay and taking the form of
bottles, balls, spindles, &c. Successive coats are
laid on, each one having previously been allowed to
thoroughly dry; either in the sun or in the smoke of
a fire, which blackens it. When a sufficient thickness
is obtained, the clay is washed out leaving the india-
rubber ready for exportation. The trees yield
twenty or thirty gallons of juice, and when we con-
sider that each gallon will produce two pounds of
market india-rubber, the harvest is not so bad.
Other trees producing caoutchouc are Siphonia
brasiliensis, S. hitea, and S. brevifolia.

Dextrine, British gum, torrified starch. To pro-
duce this gum, starch is heated until vapour rises ; by
this procedure the starch becomes soluble both in
cold^and hot water, and all its gelatinous character
disappears. It can also be made by moistening 1000
parts of dry starch with very dilute nitric acid. It is
formed in small blocks and dried in the open air,
afterwards being placed in an oven heated to 152°.
After this they are pulverized and again dried by
heat. In colour dextrine is pale yellow ; insoluble
in alcohol, more flexible and not so brittle when dry
as gum. Dextrine and starch have the same
chemical composition CgHjoOs. The gum on the
back of postage stamps is dextrine.

Turpentine. This valuable fluid is the product of
several trees, principally Pinus pahistris and P. tceda.
Most of it comes from the United States, generally
in large barrels, of the consistence of treacle or honey.
The oil is obtained by distillation and the remainder

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

147

is the common resin sometimes called rosin, which is
applied to a variety of uses. There are several
kinds of turpentine, viz., Venice turpentine, procured
from the Abies larix ; Strasburg, from Abies pecti-
7iata ; Bordeaux turpentine, from the Pimis pinaster ;
and Chio turps, from the Pistacia terebinthis.

Gum thus or frankincense, an odoriferous product
of the Boswellia scrrata. It is of slight use except
for its odour, which the Roman Catholics turn to
account in their churches. Employed also by the
ancient priests of Egypt, its odour destroying the
foul emanations from the sacrifices. It is imported
from India and sometimes the Levant.

Asafcetida {Narthex asafcetida). This flows from
incisions made in the root of the tree. In colour it
is milky white, but after it has been dried it takes on
a pinkish tint and is curiously mottled. It has a
most unpleasant odour. Afghanistan and Persia is
the home of the tree. It is used medicinally as an
anti-spasmodic in cases of asthma.

NOTE ON SIREX JUVENCUS.

I SHOULD like to record the capture in Alton,
Hants, of two fine specimens of the saw fly,
(Sirex jiivencHs), male and female. The female was
taken September 18SS in Mr. Monk's chemist's shop,
and the male on the ground in the High Street last
summer. Both specimens were kindly given to me
by the captors, and were alive at the time. This
species of saw fly does not appear to be very abun-
dant, and certainly is not so numerous as Sirex
gigas. This is the first, and only two specimens of
S. juvencHS I have had the pleasure of seeing,
although I have been on the look-out for them some
time.

At the same time, my opinion is that S. juveiiciis is
British, and probably in some localities is more
plentiful than in others. Sirex gigas, the largest of
these saw flies, is frequently taken in this neighbour-
hood, and many specimens (all females) I have had
brought and sent to me by friends, for the hornet. I
found one pinned on my front door ; and on another
occasion one was sent me securely fastened up with
string in a paper box labled " Mind the sting."
" Well," thought I, " what now ?— hornet ? "

I carefully opened the box, peeped in, and — oh,
my ! — not a hornet, but a fine female .5". gigas, with her
long needle-like ovipositor, which had been taken for
the sting of a hornet. The male of this species I have
never seen alive. At the same time 6". juvencus was
taken in the chemist's shop, Rhyssa persuasoria, one
of the Ichneumonidae, was captured in the grocer's
shop of Mr. Butler, in this town ; and this came into
my possession.

It is very fine specimen measuring from head to
extreme point of ovipositor 2| inches. The ovi-
positor alone is i| inches long, a fine instrument to

probe timber for wood-boring larv:e, in which to lay
its eggs. Can any of our correspondents say to what
extent these saw flies are injurious to fir timber ?
Will they attack healthy standing trees, or only the
sickly ones, fallen timber, and fir-fencing ? Some
years ago I had an old fir post brought me com-
pletely honey-combed by larvce of S. gigas ; and
towards the outside of post were specimens of the
saw fly ready to emerge. To all appearance the saw
fly had laid its eggs in the post. I am quite aware
that it is the opinion of some, that the fly does not
attack the healthy trees, but only the dead ones. If
those of our correspondents who live close to fir
plantations would make a few observations, and
make them known through the medium of Science-
Gossip, we should get a good bit of valuable
information.

J. BOGGUST.

LEFT BEHIND.

By the Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S., Author of
" Flowers and Flower Lore."

THE joints and sweets had been removed, and a
fine piece of cheese— whether Gruyere, Gon-
gales, or other, I am not connoisseur enough ito
determine — but at any rate, a handsome, speckled
green and white piece of cheese was brought on,
whereupon our garrulous friend at the head of the
table broke forth. " I saw such a thing the other
day as I never saw before in my life. What funny
stuff cheese is under the microscope ! "

Now I pride myself upon being rather clever at the

Fig. 108. — Willow-mite
{Tetranychus salicis). The
dot within the ring represents^Fig. 109.— Elm-mite [TctranycJius
the natural size. ulmi),

microscope, and I felt convinced that my friend the
cheese-parer had not been looking at cheese under
the microscope. Its pasty form presents no attrac-
tions like those of the bonnie wee mites which the
cheese-fancier likes to hear crack, crack between his
teeth, as he takes a morsel of the most hvely portion
and devours it after dinner as an antidote to indiges-
tion. I therefore ventured to suggest to my friend
that perhaps he had been inspecting- som.e cheese-
mites. Exactly so !

H 2

148

BA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SI P.

I am naturally a modest man, but I saw that this was
a golden opportunity for descanting on the wonders of
visible and invisible things ; and as my host and his
circle of acquaintances assured me after the conversa-
tion was over that it had been immensely interesting,

the way in which certain things get left behind in the
race of life, is that which these innocent mites afford
us."

" Indeed, I never care to see a piece of live cheese
now," said my friend. " This is a case in which ' a

[Fig. no. — Stone-mite [Tetranychus lapidus). From
Taylor's " Playtime Naturalist."

Fig. III.— Under side oi Arremtnts ^erforafus. Male [highly mag.).

Fig. 112. — Arrenurus ellipticus. Male (mag.)

I have ventured to make that piece of table-talk take
its place by the side of Landor's, Coleridge's, and
Luther's, in the hope that I, like them, may hereby
gain immortality.

" A. wonderful instance," Tbegan to explain, " of

little knowledge is a dangerous thing,' and I grant
the truth of the adage ' where ignorance is bliss 'tis
folly to be wise.' I wish I had never seen a piece of
mitey cheese under a magnifying-glass."
I thereupon undertook to prove to him that even a

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

149

cheese-mite would make a capital text for a parson (I
speak sympathetically), by preaching him a most
convincing sermon. By way of variation and illus-
tration I begged that he would obtain without delay
a most entertaining volume entitled " The Playtime
Naturalist," and turn to the chapter which deals with
mites, then come to my laboratory to see the identical

motion. We may call the six-legged stage the larval
condition, but if you wish to be deemed scientific,
pray use the word Hypopus stage. That magic word
will admit you at once into the front ranks of
scientific literates. This larval condition, be it
understood, was once regarded in a very different
light. Many a battle has been fought over a six-

Fig. 113.— Female of Arrenurus (mag.).

Fig. zi^.— Arrenurus truncatelltts (mag.).

Fig. 116. — Single eggs of Newt, wrapped in leaves, showing
development. From " Playtime Naturalist."

Fig. 115. — Arrenurus integrator (mag.).

creatures under the microscope. Here I promised to
show him the different stages from the egg to the
perfect creature, and then he would better under-
stand my meaning.

" There is one thing," I continued, " which I wish
to emphasize, and it is this ; that when the mite is
half-way between egg and imago it has only six legs,
whereas the perfect creature has eight organs of loco-

legged Hypopus — the history of which has been duly
chronicled by Michael in the ' Journal of the
Linnean Society,' by Murray in ' Economic Ento-
mology,' not to mention other authorities."

My profound learning quite took the breath from
my friend and his other guests, so that they never
attempted to interrupt me. As I seldom get a
chance to speak, I took the opportunity to point out

I50

HARD WJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

that when the mite has only six legs it corresponds
with insects, whereas in its perfect state it belongs to
the spider family. Thus the mites "in this respect
connect the two great classes of Insecta and
Arachnida : " " Playtime Naturalist," pp 70, 170.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" exclaimed the com-
pany, though I believe they were all the time think-
ing more about the quality of the cheese than the
quality of my sermon, which must have been uncon-
scionably diy. However, I flattered myself that they
were interested, and proceeded.

"This is not the only parcel that has been left

Fig. 117. — Development of Tadpole seventeen days after
laying the egg.

Fig. 118.— Eggs of Stone-mite.

B

Fig. iig.— Segmentation of Tadpole's esg. A, fourteenth day.
B, ditto, enlarged.

behind," I continued ; and at a bound I passed from
the mite to the frog. Whether my hearers knew the
difference between a frog and a toad, I very much
question, but it is well to flatter your hearers some-
times by assuming that they know as much as your-
self, for no one likes to be considered a noodle,
though he may be the essence of stupidity.

" Now," said I, "you know that when a frog's a
tadpole it's a fish 1 "

"Never! Wonderful!"

"It is wonderful, indeed," I continued; and
shameful as it must appear to the cool and philoso-

phical outsider, I forthwith proceeded to preach a
second sermon on things left behind. How far I
succeeded I know not, but I endeavoured to show
that when a frog lays its spawn there comes forth
from each lump of jelly a tiny fish — scarce, if at all
different from the young begotten by a salmon or a
cod so far as the structure or anatomy is concerned —
with gills instead of lungs and a tail for swimming
instead of legs. I then showed how in due course
the fish was left behind, and the creature, while still
retaining its tail, improvised first one pair of legs and
then a second until it stood on a par with the newts.
Finally, I referred to the perfect animal, and showed
how it gradually absorbed its tail, until it stood before
us a beautiful and rational frog.

My friends naturally wanted to know where all
this was leading, and I explained that such facts had
led the naturalist to theorize as follows : — Many
animals — and plants as well in a less degree — under-
go a series of changes in their progress from the germ
to the adult. At various stages they correspond to
animals whose development is complete — the larval
six-legged mite with the insect, and the larval tad-
pole with the fish — but eventually they pass beyond
these forms and assume others which are different and
higher. May not these stages indicate the lines along
which the creatures have moved in their race-
development ? Or to put the question in the
language of science, Does not the ontogeny of the
creature recapitulate its phylogeny ? {" Evolution,"
by Le Conte, p. 9 seq.).

I need scarcely say that mine host began to feel
that he was out of his depth, and I had to tow him to
land. This I did by explaining that so far as our
present knowledge goes the doctrine of evolution is
better adapted than any other which is at this
moment before the public to meet all the difficulties
associated with the questions of manifest life, while
its inabihty to deal with the origin of life, makes it
necessary for us still to revert to the Biblical doctrine
of a wise and beneficent Creator.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

r) OPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES
JL by Sir W. Thomson, F.R.S., &c., vols, i and
iii. (London : Macmillan). The all-embracing
science of modern physics owes more to Sir William
Thomson, perhaps, than any living man. Sir
William is not only an ingenious inventor
and a patient and accurate discoverer, but a born
teacher as well. As a lecturer he is too much in
earnest to stoop to popularity, and he is careless
about addressing any other than earnest students and
workers. He expects them to take a little trouble to
understand him, and they all know he is worth it.
Readers of these addresses must be prepared to
master a score or so of terms and phrases before they

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

151

are admitted to the "Third Degree." Then Sir
William's style, although terse and brief, is clear and
understandable. That he can command a large
circle of readers is evidenced by the fact that the fifst
edition of the work under notice was soon out of
print, and a second had immediately to be issued.
Vol. ii of the set has not yet been published. Some
of these Essays and Addresses have became classic,
notably those in vol. i. on "The Size of Atoms," and
" The Sun's Heat." Another lecture in three parts
is devoted to " The Secular Cooling of the Sun,"
"The Sun's Present Temperature," and "The
Origin and Total Amount of the Sun's Heat."
Among other addresses are " The Six Gateways of
Knowledge," "The Wave Theory of Light,"
" Electrical Measurements," •' Capillary Attraction,"
&c, JMany of these are supplemented by original
notes and appendixes. The whole of these
valuable discourses are included in one volume,
entitled "The Constitution of Matter." Volume iii.
is called " Navigation," and is devoted to navi-
gational affairs. Among them we find the following
comprehensive range of subjects discoursed upon in
various chief places: "The Tides," "Terrestrial
Magnetism and the Mariner's Compass," " On Deep
Sea Sounding by Pianoforte- Wire," "Lighthouse
Characteristics," " The Forces concerned in the
Laying- and Lifting of Deep-Sea Cables,"
"Navigation," &c. Many of these important
summaries of valuable knowledge are also added to
by original notes. Enough has been said, however,
to show that the publication of Sir William
Thomson's "Popular Lectures and Addresses" is a
welcome addition to modern scientific literature.

The Birds of Essex — A Cont7-ibiitioti to the Natural
History of the County, by Miller Christy, F.L.S.
(Chelmsford : Edmund Durrant). This is the
second special memoir published by the Essex Field-
Club — the most enterprising, active, zealous, and
intelligent of our out-door societies. The author is
a well-known, all-round naturalist, with a speciality
for ornithology. He has long been a welcome
contributor to the scientific press, some readers will
well remember his name, although we miss the
initial letter R in this his latest work. Ornithology
is a branch of natural history which demands unusual
patience and care ; and, as a rule, none but
enthusiastic ornithologists study ornithology. We
are gradually acquiring a series of splendid and trust-
worthy monographs of British birds. In the eastern
countries, particularly, we have Stevenson,
Southwell, Babington, and now Miller Christy.
The present work is got up with much taste. Most
of the illustrations (162 in number) are first-rate
specimens of natural history wood-cutting. Mr.
Christy is known as a graceful and accom-
plished writer, and he also brings to his work all
the requisites of a good ornithologist. His book
is prefaced with a highly reliable and most

interesting chapter devoted to short biographies of
the principal Essex ornithologists. Next we have
an account of the Chief Essex Bird Collections,
Migration Tables (by Mr. H. Doubleday and the
Rev. R. Sheppard), a chapter of Hawks and
Hawking in the Olden Time (by Mr. J. E. Harting),
and another on Wild Fowl Decoys and Wild
Fowling in Essex. Lastly comes the chief part of
the work: "A Catalogue on the Birds of Essex,"
which occupies over two hundred pages, and is
abundantly illustrated. Every species of bird has
some interesting note or item. This part is as
attractive and instructing as many pages of Gilbert
White. The Essex Field Club, through ^^Ir.
Christy's help, have conferred genuine assistance in
the important work of constructing a national
ornithology which will endure for many years to
come.

Lessons in Elementary Biology, by T. Jeffery
Parker, F.R.S. (London : Macmillan). We have
by no means too many good manuals of biology.
Zoology is indeed rather poor therein, and
elementary botany is too abundantly represented. A
general biology, based on the science of physical life,
is open to good literary work. Professor Parker's
handsome new text-book is of this character. It is
meant for real students, not idlers or dilettanti
skimmers of every fresh pot of scientific milk,
although such people imagine they run away with the
cream. For students in B.Sc. exams, this book is a
genuine friend. The illustrations are numerous, well
selected, and special. There is neither a needless
nor a useless one in the volume. The table of
contents includes thirty so-called " Lessons " ; and it
would be difiacult to formulate a wider area of
biological research and discussion. Professor
Parker's method of instruction is clear, solid, and so
strong that the student who has thoroughly mastered
his " Lesson " will not be likely soon to forget it.

The Making of Flowers^ by the Rev. Professor
George Henslovv (London: S.P.C.K.). Here we
have another welcome addition to the "Romance of
Science " series. Professor Henslow is the worthy
son of a worthy sire. He is a devoted botanist, and
was one of the earliest botanists to recognise the law
of evolution in his beloved study. But he never
seems to have taken kindly to the definite conclusions
of Darwin, Hooker, Lubbock, and others, that insects
are absolutely essential for crossing flowers. He
rather holds a brief for the opposition, and thinks the
plant travelled to the insect, rather than the insect
to the plant — through its migrations. Mr. Henslow
makes much of stimulation as an agent for effecting
floral change, especially the stimulation of insects.
We will not even endeavour, by sketching an outline
of this charming little book, to rob our readers of the
pleasure of perusing it.

The British Noctua and their Varieties, vol. i., by
J. W. Tutt (London : Swan Sonnenschein & Co.).

T52

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The author has herein done good and laborious
work in a field of research little known, but which
offers much of importance and interest. The student
has here collected ready for use the records of
varieties hitherto scattered through numberless
magazines. Nevertheless, much of the work recorded
is new. Mr. Tutt is well known as a diligent
lepidopterist, and this handy little manual will be
liighly acceptable to all working entomologists.

The Species of Epilobium ocairring North of
Mexico, by W. Trelease. Professor Trelease is in
charge of the Missouri Botanic Garden, and this
well got-up work forms the Second Annual Report
of that Institution. It will be of much service to
American botanists. It is illustrated by forty-seven
artistically got-up plates of the different species of
Epilobium.

Afonographie du Genre Pleurosigma et des Genres
allies, by H. Perogallo (Paris : M. J. Tempere). This
handsome monograph of the most important of all the
genera of diatoms, owes its publication to the
existence of " Le Diatomiste," the French botanical
quarterly journal, edited by M. Tempere, devoted to
the study of diatoms, to which we have already drawn
the attention of our readers. It is illustrated by
ten plates, quarto size, crowded with accurately
drawn figures. M. Perogallo's work has involved
much labour and research.

TWO VIEWS OF THE WEALD.

View the First.

THE long ridge of Kentish rag which bounds the
Weald Valley on the north slopes steeply down to
the bed of the Beult— a little tributary of the Med way,
which meanders slowly through the rich corn-land,
scattered copses and marshy meadows, which make
the Weald dear to farmers and to sportsmen. The
alluvial soil of its banks rests upon a bed of flinty
gravel, laid bare in the river-bed and the ditches
bordering the fields, and contributing more stones
to the surface soil than is usual in a land where
"stone-pickers" are unknown. These scattered
flints will furnish us with the materials for reconstruct-
ing in our imagination the Weald as it once was —
the home of beast and wild fowl, of hunters without
gun or cartridge, trained setter or beagle, but whose
weapons, of their own manufacture, doubtless did
good execution in their day.

Step with me over the plank bridge that spans the
Beult. There in the river-bank, not long ago, was
found sticking out of the soil, a beautiful polished celt,
an axe-head, whose owner little dreamed that the
tool he fashioned and polished with such infinite toil
and care should now alone represent to us the worker's
life and ways.

When we have crossed the meadows, where the

overflowing river deepens its 'deposit of silt every
winter, we arrive at the edge of some ploughed fields,
bare as yet of seedlings ; the soil in this curious
"spring" weather is dry and crumbling after the
ploughing and harrowing. At every step or so we
may pick up a fragment of flint — satiny black, trans-
lucent grey or brown, glowing red, almost as jasper,
weathered to a blue like that of the Kentish hills in
the distance, cracked and calcined like a bit of old
pottery — and of real pottery, too, we may pick up
specimens, of which more anon.

The variety of colour in the flints is by no means
their sole attraction or interest. Scarcely one of them
but has been split or splintered, and that in no
accidental manner. A practised eye soon recognises
"flakes " and "cores," perhaps a fashioned arrow-
head, borer, or other tool. Here was undoubtedly
one of the earliest manufactories of which we have
record— and these flints are the raw material, the
refuse, or the finished articles.

Long ago the ever-working rain and frost and
rivers and sea wore away the escarpment of those
chalky downs which bound the Weald to north and
south ; long ago the flints were drifted over the land,
sole traces of the earlier deposits. The great Weald
forest grew up, man appeared on the scene, and here,
where fish and bird and beast must have found food in
plenty, their newly arrived master found weapons also
to his hand. Generations of the old stone-workers
must have lived and died — hundreds of flints must have
been chipped and shaped, and presently polished, and
then " the old order " changed, newer races came on
the scene, for as we trudge over the ground we can
pick up from time to time pieces of well-burnt clay
that are not bits of drain-pipes, nor specimens of
modern art, but genuine Roman tiles, and Roman
pots. And on the far side of the Beult, along the
hill, stretches a long line of Roman earthworks, and in
a copse half-way down is a still untouched tumulus,
into which as yet only the rabbits have been
privileged to burrow.

And so, as we homeward wend our weary but
happy way, we may see in thought the savage
hunters stalking their game, setting their snares or
their nets, sitting over their fires after nightfall — ashes
have been dug up in these very fields — shaping and
polishing their tools, scraping their skins, fitting their
bows, doubtless enjoying life as much as did those
modern sportsmen whose many empty cartridge-cases
now betoken a "warm corner." Doubtless the
rabbits scurried and burrowed, as now in the soft
loam, and the plover screamed over-head, and the
larks rose into the cloudy sky wherever the wood was
cleared — perhaps also the wolf and the bear and the
wild boar ranged over the land. Much is changed,
yet enough is the same — enough to make us sure that
these our rude forefathers of the stone ages, had in
many ways such a view of the Weald, as we may
have to-day, if we will but look for it.

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G 0 SSIF.

153

View the Second.

The Weald of to-day is rapidly getting prosaic :
the iron horse and the jerry builder are penetrating
into its depths, the primroses and ferns are fast
vanishing from its hedgerows, the traction engine is
replacing the labouring team, hedgerows themselves
are giving way to iron fences, barbed as often as not,
copses are being "grubbed," wayside trees cut down,
strips of turf quietly absorbed into the nearest field,
thrashing and ploughing, and miUing done by steam,
instead of by homely and slower methods, the smock-
frock and the village curtsey are things of the past
along the main roads — or at least wherever the rail has
crossed them. It is worth while, therefore, to leave
the land of transition, and see what remains of the
old ways and the old places.

Anyone who visits the county town on a market-
day will see drawn up in lines in the broad High
Street carriers' vans and omnibuses of all sizes and
degrees of gentility. In the course of the afternoon
these will be labouring out of the town, laden with
marketing folk and their baggage, and with many a
parcel to be dropped at wayside inn or cottage.

Suppose we take an outside seat on one of these
bound some fifteen miles or more into the heart of
the Weald, where Tenterden, Biddenden, Hawkhurst,
and all the other dens and hursts remind one of its
former forests and bosky dells.

Slowly, slowly the pair of horses — hardly a pair —
toil up the long ascent to the top of the limestone
ridge. We travel south by east, and the keen north-
east wind cuts across the fields, now faintly green
with springing wheat, and raises clouds of dust, till
the hedges are whitened as in July, though they are
barely green enough for March.

The broad, flat-topped hill is crossed, the road
winds down the steeper side, and we are soon on the
ievel. We have passed one village well placed on
the slope and grouped round its pretty church, whose
stone spire is a land-mark for many miles. Our
conveyance has stopped to refresh " man and beast "
at a low-browed, timber-fronted inn ; many a greeting
has been exchanged with passers-by, and now we set
off with quicker pace to cross the flat valley, through
which the railway runs straight as an arrow from
Tonbridge to Ashford, Sycamores and horse-
chestnuts are just budding, meadows are getting "a
bite " on them for the numerous lambkins, and here
and there starry anemones or celandines grace shaw or
bank. In cottage-gardens the " lent lilies"— all out
of date — are nodding in the breeze ; the characteristic
cottages, steep in front and sloping low behind, like
the hills, show budding pear and plum-trees ; over a
wayside-pond are the first swallows skimming ; and
our onward movement is impeded here and there by
those of sheep and cattle from a country-market.
One frightened little calf slips between our horses.

*' Three abreast," jocularly remarks the driver ; but
he pulls up in time to save it a blow or scratch. All
this is commonplace enough ; but the level fields, the
winding road, the luxuriant hedgerows, the leisurely
movements of everybody give a sense of peace and
rest not always easy to find nowadays.

We have crossed the railway, exchanged inside
passengers and parcels, and off we go again, due
south now, leaving the valley behind, and mounting
one after another the sandstone slopes which lead
gently up to the South Downs.

Corn-fields, hop-gardens, and •' oast-houses," grow
fewer, meadows and woods and heather-covered
banks more numerous, till at last a tall windmill, a
solid, square church-tower, and many brown- tiled
roofs betoken our destination — a little old-fashioned
town, innocent of railway, and living its life of
gentle measured bustle with a grace that is quite
charming.

Next morning, as we sally forth from our comfort-
able quarters at a real old-fashioned inn there is a
choice of many roads. We take one which leads
southward, and find with delight that though
Primrose Day has come and gone, the primroses in
hot, damp, wayside copses and hedgerows are still
waiting to be picked, that wood-sorrel and
moschatel peep from the shady nooks, and milk-
maids, violets, and celandines deck the sunny
stretches.

We stop towards noon at a trim farmhouse, all red
brick and tile, with ample store of hay still in its
rick-yard. The ponderous knocker brings out the
farmer himself, in working clothes. He is pleased to
tell the way ; but a request for milk brings the good-
humoured explanation that it is all in the creaming-
pans. " If you'd 'a come in the morning or evening
milking-time now — " But the laws of the dairy
are those of the Medes and Persians, and we turn
thirsty away. We have noted, however, the bees
humming in and out of chinks in the weather-tiles.
"Yes," he says; " we took out more 'n a hundred-
weight o' comb last year." We wonder to ourselves
what it must be like to live in such close quarters
with the busy little folk.

Up hill, down dale, over field and stile and five-
barred gate we make our way. A labourer taking
his nooning under a haystack shows us a cross-cut,
and we feel that we have lighted upon a land where
nature still has a good deal of her own way.

For our evening stroll there are the wide woods,
where thrush and cuckoo and pheasant greet us with
their songs and calls, and where the moor-hen
splashes in a lonely pond.

When the last red sunset-gleams have glorified the
fir-trees a clear moon shines over the gabled houses,
fewer and fewer footsteps echo on the rough pave-
ments, soon they cease ; and at old-fashioned hours
the old-fashioned folk seek their (doubtless) well-
earned slumbers.

154

HARD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

Call it dull if you will : to those whose eyes and
ears are open, such a life in such surroundings has
much of the keenest interest — it is that of our England
unadulterated. Let us enjoy it while we may.

M. E. Pope.

NOTES ON THE MODIFICATIONS OF
ROOTS.

THE axile roots, such as the conical tap-roots,
which occur in Aconiium iiapcllus^ Pcucedamim
sativujn, and Daucus carota, are a direct prolongation
of the stem ; as also the fusiform i-x'^-xooi oi Raphamts
raphanistruin, and the napiform tajD-root ol Brassica
rapa. The contorted root of Polygonum listorta,
and the premorse root of Scahiosa sicccisa, seem to
be only modifications of the rhizome, but are some-
times mistaken for true roots.

The tuberculated roots, as the palmate tubercules
of Orchis maculata, are only formed by the enlarging

Fig. 120.— Abnormal Tubercules of Orchis macidata.

of several adventitious fibrous roots which have
cohered at their bases, and left their extremities free,
which forms the divisions of this kind of tubercule ;
those adventitious roots which ascend from the junc-
tion of the tubercules with the stem have slightly
enlarged, but otherwise preserved their primary form ;
this may be ascertained by a specimen I found in
Sussex in 1890, which had no perfect tubercules, but
had in their place several adventitious fibrous roots
which should have cohered and formed the two
tubercules ; all these fibres were a little swollen at
their upper ends.

The ovoid tubercules of Herminium, Ophrys, and
Aceras, etc., are formed by complete cohesion of
several fibres, or by the enlarging of a single one.
In the fasciculated roots of Jianuncidiis ficaria, this
same enlarging of some of the adventitious roots is
obvious ; on a single plant may be found all the
modifications from a fibrous adventitious root to a
fasciculated, or even ovoid tubercule. The dahlia
exhibits another form of adventitious fasciculated

roots, where several of the fibrous roots have cohered
and formed an elongate ovoid tubercule, the ends only
are left free at the extremities of the tubercules. In
CEyianthe pimpindloidcs and Spircca filipendula we
have the nodose adventitious roots ; in the former
species we have the swelling about the middle of the
fibre, while in the latter it is near its extremity ; in
(Enanthelachenalii, the fibres are but slightly swollen.

Fig. 321. — Palmate Tubercules of Orchis maculaia.

Fig. 122. — Palmate Tubercules of Orchis viaculata.

which must have been the primary of those of CE.

pimpinelloides.

It seems that the stem was the primary form of

roots, since all roots have more or less the structure

of stems ; those roots so different from the stem

modifications, may only have lost their structure with

time.

Henry E. Griset.

HA ED WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SI P.

155

BOTANICAL RAMBLES NEAR ROUND-
STONE, COUNTY GALWAY.

THE district I am about to describe is situated
near Roundstone, a small town on the south-
west coast of Connemara, about fifty miles by road
from Galway. Immediately to the west of the town
is Urrisbeg, a hill of nine hundred and eighty-seven
feet in height, the slopes of which, and the lakes and
bogs about its base, are all very rich in rare
plants.

The hill is composed of granite, and is rather
remarkable for the number of metallic ores it contains,
viz. — gold, silver, copper, lead, and molybdenite. But
I think some of them are in too small quantities and
too much diffused to pay for extensive mining
operations.

I visited this locality last June in company with
my friend, Mr. J. G. Wells. We arrived there on
the 29th, from the Aran Islands.

The next morning we started botanising, and were
much struck with the profusion of Osnmnda rcgalis
growing on the banks of all the streams and ditches.
It was of all sizes from a few inches to three or four
feet in height ; very fine indeed it looks, with the light
green fronds topped with a large brown spike of
of sporangia. This seems to be one of the commonest
ferns in Connemara; I noticed it in most of the
ditches along the roadsides.

Soon after we started to ascend the hill, we found
the lovely Dahceocia poUfolia in flower. This plant is
confined to the west of Ireland, and is orie of the
most gorgeous of our Ericaces, its crimson flowers
are in some cases nearly three-quarters of an inch
long. There is also a white variety to be found
about here, but we were not fortunate enough to
see it.

Pinguicula Itcsilanica was found growing on boggy
ground a short distance up. It is a most delicate little
plant, the leaves are very pale with darker veins ; the
flower is lilac, also with darker veins. The whole
plant is very fragile, and much smaller than P.
vulgaris, which we found growing with it. The
plants of this genus are very interesting from the fact
that they are insectivorous.

Other plants worth mention are Schxjms nigricans,
which is very conspicuous, with angular-looking
heads of black glumes ; Eriophortim angtistifoliiim
(the cotton-grass) ; Scirpus pauciflorus, and Carcx
limosa.

We also found a thistle which, I think, is a hybrid
between Cardmcs palustris and pratcnsis ; but
we did not see either of these species anywhere in
the locality.

All the above were growing on the boggy slopes of
the hill.

On reaching the top of Urrisbeg a very striking
view meets the eye. Looking north we could see
nearly three hundred lakes, both large and small, all

clustered together in the space of a few square miles ;
houses and cultivation are conspicuous by their
absence. To the westward stretches Slyne Head
with the two lighthouses on the island at its
extremity. To the southward we could see Deer
Island and numerous others, further out to sea
the three islands of Aran ; along the coast of these
latter could be seen the smoke arising from the
numerous fires of the kelp-burners.

The next day (July ist) we took a route around the
base of Urrisbeg.

In some small pools on a peat bog we found
Utricidaria minor and U. intermedia growing in
abundance. The former was in flower ; they are
supported on a very fine stalk, and stand a few
inches out of the water ; the bladders and leaves are
on the same stem. In the latter species the bladders
are very large and on separate stems from the leaves ;
it is very distinct from all the other species of the
genus.

Both these plants are insectivorous, and in the
bladders of intermedia I found numerous minute
fresh-water crustaceans, etc.

Growing with the above was Chara fragilis in full
fruit.

On the peat of these bogs were found all three
species of Drosera, viz., rotitndifoliay a^igUca, and
intermedia. This is also a most interesting genus,
from the fact that all the species are insectivorous,
and I found some plants with two or three of the
leaves each making a meal off an insect. Some of
the plants of anglica were very fine, the leaves of this
species are more erect than those of rotu?idifolia, and
are therefore very conspicuous among the bog-moss.
After leaving this boggy ground we went over a spur
of the hill and down into a little valley, on the slopes
of which was growing Erica mediterranea. This
spot and one in County Mayo are its only British
habitats ; we were unfortunately too late for the
the flower. I only found one small sprig with two or
three flowers on it ; but when in full bloom it must be
a beautiful sight, judging from the large quantity of
withered flowers we saw. Growing about this place
was Saxifraga tcmbrosa (London pride) ; this is only
found truly wild in Ireland.

From here we went on to Lake Bollard, one of
the larger ones seen from the top of Urrisbeg. There
is a spot near here where the true British maiden-hair
fern {Adiantiim Capillus- Veneris) grows, and I should
think out in this wild part, nearly fifty miles from a
railway station, it will be out of the reach of the
Vandal tourist for many years to come. It does not
grow very large here ; the specimens we saw were
only a few inches high.

At the place we first struck the lake is a little cove
with a sandy strand ; here we started dragging for
aquatic plants, and were very well rewarded for our
trouble, almost the first haul brought to land a speci-
men of the rare Ej'iocaulon septangulare, a most curious

156

HARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

little plantwith awl-shaped leaves, of apeculiar cellular
structure ; these arise from a crown on a creeping root-
stock ; the roots also exhibit an annular structure
very distinctly. We were not fortunate enough to
find it in flower. Growing with the above was
Lobelia dortmanna ; this is a rather curious plant, all
the leaves are under water ; the flower-stalks stand up
several inches above the surface, bearing a few lilac
flowers. At a distance they have the appearance of
dead straws standing in the water.

Another plant the drag brought up was Scirpiis
fliiitans. This varies very much with the depth of the
water ; in some specimens I found the branches were
as thin as horsehair, and others, in shallower water,
considerably thicker.

Ardostaphylos iira-ursi, was found trailing along
the ground close to the edge of the lake. On our way
back to Roundstone across the bogs, we came to a
small stream of deep water, which was covered with
NymphcEa alba ; between twenty and thirty of its
beautiful white flowers were floating in the space
of a few square yards. It abounds on most of the
lakes, &c., in this part of Connemara.

Samolus valerandi, Habenaria chloroleuca, and
Carex stricta, were also observed.

July 2nd. We went along the heaths and bogs by
the side of the road that runs from Roundstone to
Clifden. On a slightly elevated heath about five miles
along, we found the rare Erica Mackayi, growing in
fair quantity. It is easily distinguished from E.
Tetralix, by the reddish tips of the branches and the
more ovate leaves. I found some forms of Tetralix
that come very near to this species. While speaking
of heaths I may say that we found white varieties of
Tetralix and cinerea.

Cladium germanicum was found growing by the
side of a small lake near this spot,

July 3rd. This day we drove from Roundstone to
the picturesque group of mountains known as the
Twelve Pins, a distance of about eight miles. On
arriving there we at once started to ascend the
nearest, which is rather steep all the way up. The
only plants worth notice we found on the lower part
were Thalictrum minus and Carex pitlicaris. The flora
of these mountains is most scanty ; we went to the
top of three of them, and the only plant we thought
worth taking was Saxifraga timbrosa ; this was very
various in form and size, some plants only about \\
inches in height, and others as much as i foot. Our
labours were rewarded in another way this time, for on
reaching the top (over 2,000 ft.) there was a most
splendid view of the whole coast-line from Achil
Head on the north to Loop Head on the south.

As the day was perfectly clear and bright we could
make out, with the aid of our map the islands of
Clare, Inishturk, Inishhofm, Inishark and Aran
besides numerous smaller ones.

On the descent we followed the course of a small
stream flowing in a deep bed with very steep banks.

Along this we found Dabxocia polifolia very large, and
in some spots 'vci great quantity ; also some of the
hybrid thistles. So after a hard day, we had done
very little botanical work, and were glad to get back
to our car, which had been " put up" by the road-
side, and drive back to Roundstone,

Next day we drove to Galway by the mail car, in
time to catch the night train for Dublin, en route for
Burton.

Jno, E, Nowers,

Burton- on- Trent.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
BRITISH DIPTERA.

By E. Brunetti,
\C0ntin1tedjr07n p. 131.]

IN my introductory remarks on existing collections
in the first portion of this paper, I mentioned
the unsatisfactory state of the British Museum Col-
lection, but I can now, with much pleasure, retract
that statement, as a new and able assistant (Mr,
Austen) has been added to the staff, and under his
indefatigable efforts the Collection is being rapidly
overhauled and properly arranged,

29. MuscidcB,

Over 800 species of this immense family are known
to be British, and ere long the list will probably
exceed a thousand, as over 4000 European species
(nearly half the total number inhabiting Europe)
belong to it, and there are probably 30,000 species
distributed over the world. The venation is very
similar throughout the whole group, the genera in
which it varies most belonging to the group Acalyp-
terata.

Six sub-families are universally recognised.

AlulcC large [Calypteratd].

Fourth longitudinal vein (from just beyond external trans-
verse vein) bent up towards tip of third.

Arista bare (in some genera pubescent) : TachinincB.
Arista pubescent.

Arista bare from the middle to the tip : Sar~

coj>liagi>ice.
Arista pubescent to the tip.

Abdomen conical, covered with long spines —

legs rather long : DexiiiiF.
Abdomen rounded, no spines, legs rather
short : JShtscina;.
Fourth longitudinal vein not bent up towards the third,
and diverging from it towards the tip : Anthomyina.
Alulae small or absent [Acalypterata).

The arista is the antennal style — usually long, and
seated on the upper side at the base of the third
joint.

The antennae in the calypterate MiiscidiC are
usually pendent, lying close together in the centre
of the face — the arista being generally horizontal.

A very slight acquaintance with the Ahiscidce is
sufficient for the student to recognise at a glance the
sub-family to which any specimen belongs.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

157

(l.) Tachinincs.

This is an exceedingly difficult group to study, the
species being so closely allied, variation being com-
mon and the published matter so scanty and ex-
ceedingly unreliable.

R. Desvoidy, Walker, and some other authors have

Fig. rz'i.—Rhavtpkofttyia, Mg.

Fig. i2^.—Etnpis, L.

Fig. 125. — Hilara, Mg.

^^-»

Fig. 126. — Tachydromia, Mg.

Fig. i^T.^DolicJiopus, Latr.

Fig. 128. — Hydrophorus, Uhlbg.

created hosts of new species on minute differences,
and their names are being sunk wholesale as
synonyms as the group becomes better known.

Walker's Tachinidm in his British Diptera are
hopelessly indeterminable, his descriptions of this
group being of no scientific value whatever.

Most of the Tachinida: are parasitic on larvae
(especially Lepidoptera, the genus Cucullia being
a particular favourite). Sevville reared eighty
specimens from one Acherontia airopos larva.
Dufour, Winthemi, Curtis, St. Fargeau, Bouche
and others record observations of their parasitic
habits.

Fig. i2<j.—Medeierus, Fisch.

Fig. tyi.—Clinocera, Mg.

Fig. ■tyi.—Lonchopteray Mg.]

i-i-H

Fig. -i^i.—Plaiypeza, Mg.

Fig. zyi-— Pipunctihis, Latr.

Fig. 134. — CJtyrsosaster, Mg.

The flies are usually found in dry, warm habitats
and on Umbellijcra:, and are easily recognised by the
long, conspicuous spines and bristles that cover the
body and legs in nearly all the species. The legs
are very brittle and easily broken.

Five subdivisions are generally recognised.

158

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Abdomen quite bare.

Abdomen tive or six-segmented, flat, wings broad and

large — triangular : Phasimr.
Abdomen four-segmented, globular, wings of normal shape,
rather small : Gynittosomina;.
Abdomen pubescent, large spines nearly always present.

Abdomen five-segmented, long— genitalia very prominent.
Fourth longitudinal vein meeting third some distance
from edge of wing, fifth meeting fourth much beyond
middle of first post, cell : Ocyfrteriniv.
Fourth longitudinal vein meeting third nearly at edge
of wing, fifth meeting fourth before centre of first
post, cell : Phanina-.
Abdomen four-seeraented, conical, genitalia not pro-
minent: Tachininte.

The principal genera are Echinomyia, Dumer,
Ncmorcea, Desv., Exorista, Mg., Tachiiia, Mg., and

Fig. z-i%.—Syyph7is, F.

Fig. 136. — Volucella, Geoff.

Fig. 137. — Eristalis, Latr.

Fig. 138. — Criorrhina, Mcq.

Phorocera, Desv., but the state of our knowledge of
the group is at present highly unsatisfactory.

Echinomyia grossa, L,, is one of the largest
British flies, and is a large black bee-like fly covered
with soft black hair ; face, front and back of the
head yellow, with short bright golden pubescence ;
antennas tawny, tips black ; legs black ; wings pale
grey, tawny at base and on the fore-border ; long
12-15 mm.

Olivicria lateralis, V., abdomen tawny, with a
central dorsal black stripe enlarged towards the tip,
and covering the whole of the last segment ; thorax
black with indistinct grey stripes ; face and front
silvery grey ; antennce and legs black ; wings pale
grey, brownish on fore-border ; long 7-8. Common
in long grass.

Exorista vulgaris. Fin., is a tessellated black and
grey fly, subject to much variation ; wings clear ;
face silvery-grey, with a central broad brown band ;
antenna large, long, black ; legs black ; alulae large,
white ; long 7-8 mm. Most of the genera are
represented by two or three species only.

Nemorcza occurs chiefly in woods.

Gy77inosoma, Mg., and Clytia, Desv., frequent the
carrot plant.

In Myobia, Desv., and Metopia, Mg., the $ lays
her eggs on the dead insects brought into Hymeno-
pterous nests as food.

Fig. 139. — Xylota, Mg.

Fig. 140. — Ckrysotoxum, Mg.

Fig. 141. — Conops, L.

Fig. 142. — CEstrus, L.

Tachina, Masicera, Exorista, NemorcEa, Echi-
nomyia, and others are known to be parasitic on
Lepidoptera, Serville thinking that Nemoraa is also
parasitic on Lepidopterous pupce.

Gonia, Mg., is represented by five species, none
common ; the face is very broad.

Trixa, Mg., somewhat resembles Sarcophaga ;
three species, larva unknown.

Alopliora hemiptera, F, Pauz. Ixxiv. Echinomyia
ferox, Pz., Pauz. civ, Trixa variegata, Mg., Wlk. ii.
PI. xii. 3. Gymnosoma rotiuidatiim, L,, Wlk. ii. PI.
xi. 6, Ocyptera brassicaria, F., Curt. 629.

(2.) Dcxince.

This small group is closely allied to the Tachinince,
and calls for no special mention ; about twenty

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

159

species are British, nearly all representing a different
genus each ; of Dexia we have five species. The
larva of the Dcximc are chiefly parasitic on Lepido-
ptera ; the flies frequent flowers and dry, warm spots,
and are often found in woods.

In Desvoidy's splendid work on the " Myodaires,"
he gives a lengthy list of the species of Tachiniuu:
and Dexincc that are known to be parasitic, with the
species of insect infested.

As a rule the abdomen is longer and more pointed
in this group than in the Tachini/uc, and as in that
group the legs are brittle and easily become detached
from the body,

Frosena siberita^ F., Curt. 665. Tlielaira letuozona,
Pz., Pauz. civ.

(3.) Sarcpphagincc,

Dr. Meade, a few years ago monographed the
British species of this group, which number about
twenty, all (with one or two exceptions) being
closely allied and exceedingly difficult to identify.

They breed in decaying animal matter, occasionally
in dung. The imagos usually have tesselated black
and grey abdomens — with strong spines towards the
tip. The thorax is usually longer than it is broad.

Cynomyia viortiwriim, L., is a large, bright blue
fly which breeds in the putrid corpses of animals,
generally dogs ; appearing in April and May. The
face is bright golden yellow ; the legs black ; wings
nearly clear. It is not common here, but is frequently
met with on the Continent ; long 8-12 mm.

Sarcophaga, Mg., is a genus of flies, in which the
thorax and abdomen are divided into tessellated
squares, the wings are pale grey, the legs black ; and
the thorax, abdomen, and legs covered more or less
with spines, the number, length and position of these
spines being important specific characteristics.

.5". caniaria, L., the commonest species, is known
as the "flesh-fly."

In some species the extreme tip of the abdomen is
bright red. The 9 in this genus is viviparous,
20,000 larvag having been found in a single specimen.

(4.) Muscina:.

The flies of this group are the greatest scavengers
of the order, the larvje living in decomposing animal
matter and devouring nearly all the fleshy part of the
carcase. Sometimes they breed in dung.

About thirty species are British, many very
common.

The principal genera may be separated thus : —

Proboscis horny, projecting horizontally, prominent : Stomoxys,

Geoff.
Proboscis soft, vertical, not prominent.

Fourth longitudinal vein at its bend upwards not forming
a sharp angle.

Middle tibia spined along its length : Mesembrina,

Mg.
Middle tibia spined only at tip: Cyrioneura, Mcq.
Fourth longitudinal vein at its bend upwards forming a
sharp angle.

Species non-metallic.

Middle tibia spined along its length : CalUphora,
Des.

Middle tibia spined only at tip : Musca, L.
Species metallic green : Lucilia, Des.

Lticilia, Desv., is a genus of bright metallic green
flies, the face being usually black or green, the wings
nearly clear.

At least six species are British, all more or less
pubescent, and all very closely allied ; long <y-\o
mm.

L, Ccesar, L., and L. cornicifta, F., are the two
most common species, appearing everywhere ; the
latter being easily known by its bright green face.
These flies are sometimes known as "green-bottles."

CalUphora eiythrocephala, Mg., is the common
meat-fly or "blue-bottle;" a closely allied species,
C. vomitoria, L., has a red beard. The progeny of
this fly is said to amount to 500,000,000 in twelve
months ; and Mr. B. Lowne, who has made this
species a study for many years, asserts that in the
imago " not one structure exists as it exists in the
maggot."

Musca do??testtca, L., is the common house-fly.
Black and grey, with rather tawny sides to the
abdomen ; antennae, legs, and eyes black ; wings
clear ; thorax black, with grey stripes ; face silvery ;
long 5-7 mm.

Mesembrina meridiana, L., is a rather large black
haiiy fly,; with black snout and golden yellow cheeks ;
black mouth and eyes, black legs, grey wings, tawny
at the base and along the fore-border; not un-
common ; local ; long lo-i I mm.

Stomoxys calcitrans, L., is easily recognised by its
strong, prominent proboscis. About the size of
M. domestica, the abdomen being greyish with black
markings ; usually found on sunny days on leaves
and wooden posts ; it follows horses in numbers, and
causes much irritation by its bite ; long 6 mm.

Cyrtoiieura stabidans. Fin., greyish, with pale
brown reflections, larger tham M. dojnestica, common
everywhere, especially in houses.

It has been bred from shallot, but the species in
all probability breeds in a variety of substances.

(5.) Anthomyincs.

Of this extensive group of closely allied species,
we have over 200 species. In many species it is
impossible to identify the 5 , the specific characters
being confined to the ^.

The larvse of many species are leaf-miners, others
live in the stalks of plants, in fungi, decomposing
vegetable matter, &c., and damage the crops to no
inconsiderable extent.

Dr. Meade published in the " Ent. Month. Mag.,"
vol. xviii. (188 1 ), a series of articles on this group,
and in the number for Oct. 1SS3, gives an analytical
table of the higher genera of Antkotnyinis. This
group is eminently a very difficult one to classify

i6o

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SI P.

satisfactorily as many of the generic characteristics
are sexual, and such weak characters as the colour of
the legs has been fallen back upon as distinguishing
points.

One or two well-marked groups may be dis-
tinguished, (as Hydrotcca, Homaloniyia, &c.,) and
the principal genera may be recognised as follows : —

Alulae of moderate size, scales of unequal size.

Front femora in cf toothed, third and fourth longitudinal

veins convergent : Hydrotcea, Des.
Front femora normal, third and fourth longitudinal veins
parallel or diverging.
Eyes pubescent : Hyetodesia, Rond.
Eyes bare.

Abdomen spotted.

Arista feathered : Spilogaster, Mcq.
Arista pubescent or bare : Limnophora, Des.
Abdomen unspotted.

Anal vein nearly reaching border of wing.
Arista leathered : Hydrophoria, Des.
Arista pubescent or bare: Anthomyia,
Mg.
Anal vein very short, curved towards the
axillary vein ; Homalomyia, Bouch^.
Alula small ; scales of equal size.

Arista feathered : Hylemyia, Des.

Arista pubescent or bare : Chortophila, Mcq.

Limnophora, Des., comes chiefly from Scotland.

Hydrotaa dentipes, F., is a dark grey fly, with
greyish reflections ; pale brown wings ; black legs
and silvery cheeks, and is common in most parts ;
variable ; long 9 mm.

D)yincia hamata. Fall., may be easily recognised
by its strong hooked proboscis.

Hylemyia strigosa, Y., is a bristly grey fly, the
dorsum of the thorax being pale brown, distinctly
marked off from the lower part of the thorax ;
abdomen grey, with a dorsal and three transverse
black stripes ; face silvery seen from above, black
viewed from below ; mouth and antennae black ;
eyes reddish-brown ; wings pale grey ; legs blackish,
tibix more or less dark tawny ; common, especially
in woods ; variable ; long 6 mm. One species {^H.
coarctata. Fall.) damages the wheat crop whilst in
the larval state, attacking the stalk.

Anthomyia radicutn, L., jf, is a small black fly,
breeding in cabbage and other like plants ; abdomen
dark grey, with a dorsal and four transverse black
stripes ; face and legs black ; wings pale grey ; eyes
often with a silvery border ; very common on low
herbage and in London gardens ; long 4 mm.

A, szdciventris, Zett., is also common everywhere,
the (f is a nearly black fly, with unmarked abdomen.
The 5 is greyish-black, with unmarked abdomen.

Caricea tigrina, F., common in long grass ; bristly,
grey with rows of black spots on the thorax, each
giving forth a bristle, and with four brown spots on
the abdomen ; legs black with tawny tibire ; face
grey with a broad central stripe ; eyes and antennte
black ; wings pale grey ; variable ; long 5-6 mm.

Chortophila, Mcq., an extensive genus of small
flies allied to Anthomyia, many being tolerably
common ; some of the species being parasitic on
wild bees. Dr. Meade having taken them in the nests
of the latter.

Homalomyia caniciilaris, L., is very common in
houses ; ^ blackish-grey ; abdomen tawny, divided
by a dorsal and two transverse lines into six squares,
tip blackish ; face silvery white, with a central black
stripe ; wings pale grey ; legs blackish ; variable ;
long 4-5 mm. The males of this genus hover
together in the air in a group, sometimes for hours
together, and are often seen in rooms in early morning
hovering below the centre of the ceiling or near the
windows.

This species and another of this genus have been
bred from the human body.

Hylemyia coarctata. Fin., in the larval state does
considerable damage to the wheat crop.

The larva of Ca:nosia, Mg. (allied to Caricea),
lives in cow-dung.

Over a dozen genera are represented by only one
or two species each. In several of the less developed
genera the eyes are widely separated in both sexes,
thus approaching the acalypterate Muscidce, from
which they are scarcely structurally distinct.

Plates are not of much value in this group, except
to illustrate genera or very characteristic species.

Hydrotcza ciliata, F., Curt. 768. Lispe tetitaculata,
Deg., Walk. ii. PI. xii. i. Anthomyia pliivialis, L.,
Walk. ii. PI. xii. 2. Policies lardaria, F., Walk. ii.
PI. xii. 9. Dryvieia hamata. Fin., Walk. ii. PI. xii.
12.

(To he continued.)

A NEW SPECIES OF DASYDYTES— ORDER
GASTROTRICHA.

THIS Order of the mighty worm-alliance seems
to have attracted very little, if any, careful
observation in this country of late years, although
both on the Continent and in the United States a
great amount of attention has been devoted thereto.
Quite recently, in 1887-8, Mr. A. C. Stokes added
greatly to our knowledge of the American forms,
describing in his papers in the "Journal de Micro-
graphie," numerous new species of Chietonotus and
other genera ; while in 1889, Dr. Carl Zelinka pub-
lished an exhaustive monograph of the group ( " Die
Gastrotrichen," in " Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool.," xlix.,
Part 2), in which all Stokes' recent species are
included, and to which admirable work I can con-
fidently refer British microscopists desirous of ex-
tending their acquaintance with these creatures.

In our own country, Mr. T. Spencer described, in
" Journ. Quekett Micro. Club," January 1890, under
the name of Polyarthra fusiformis, an animal
which, however, is not a rotiferon, but (as pointed
out by me in the same Journal, January 1891) clearly
referable to the genus Dasydytes of the Gastrotricha.
This must evidently be known in future as Dasydytes
fusiformis, Spencer ; it is a pretty and curious little
creature, very distinct from any previously described.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

i6i

In all probability, many or most of the species
recorded from the above countries, are also common
to Britain, if observers would but search systemati-
cally for them, and place on record [such forms as
they may chance to meet with. It is for this purpose
of awakening interest, and so helping to increase our
knowledge of our indigenous Gastrotricha, that this
communication is written.

In November, 1S90, whilst searching for Rotifera,
I came across, in water from a pond near Leyton-
stone, Essex, some specimens of a Dasydytes which

'Vl".-^'

Fig. 142.— Dasjfdyies hisetosunt.

does not appear to be identical with any member of
this genus included in Dr. Zelinka's recent mono-
graph, above referred to. Some half-dozen indivi-
duals were seen in all, and afforded me opportunity of
making the following observations, and of securing a
fairly accurate sketch of the animal. I propose to
call this Dasydytes hisetosum.

The body is plump and of oval outline when seen
dorsally, rounded posteriorly, and of course without
any caudal fork ; anteriorly, the trunk narrows to
the neck, which latter is very distinctly marked off
from the head. A couple of transverse wrinkles in

the skin are more or less visible, crossing the neck.
The head is large and wide, three-lobed in dorsal
aspect, the lateral lobes prominent like puffed cheeks ;
the width of the head is nearly twice that of the neck,
and about three-fourths that of the body at its widest
part. Both head and neck are usually considerably
flattened, excepting the lateral head-lobes, which are
somewhat globose and thicker than the central region
of the head. The trunk is not at all flattened,
appearing circular in optical cross-section.

The head is covered on all its surfaces, dorsal,
lateral, and ventral, with numerous long vibratile
cilia, directed backwards.

The body is furnished, on its lateral surfaces, with
a few rather short, very thin and delicate, somewhat
appressed bristles, apparently arranged in about three
longitudinal rows on each side, though this is a point
difficult to determine. I do not think any bristles
occur on the dorsal surface proper. These setae occur
also on the sides of the neck, and, in side view of

the animal, are seen to be directed dorsally and
posteriorly ; none are nearly so long as the terminal
caudal bristles to be described. The animal's
ventral surface is longitudinally furred with active
cilia, like all the members of the Order. The body
is rounded behind, and has a terminal projection,
convexly truncate, from which are given off two long,
thin and delicate setse, quite one-third the total
length of the animal's body and head, set wide apart
at their base, and carried parallel or with their tips in
contact. It is on account of these two conspicuous
tail-bristles, which serve by their great length to
distinguish this new form from its allies, that I have
selected the specific title " bisetosum " for the
creature.

The mouth is a permanently projecting tube,
surrounded by a ring, at the extreme front of the
head. It is continued into a long oesophagus, about
one-third the total length of the animal, having a
narrow but distinct, straight lumen, and very thick
walls, on which I could detect no cross-striation.

l62

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The gullet terminates, at the point where the neck
passes into the trunk, in a long straight stomach,
running along the ventral side of the body-cavity,
and crowded with colourless food in pellets ; this is
continued, without any visible constriction, into the
intestine, and ends in the anus just in front of the
rounded posterior extremity of the trunk. I could
not determine the presence of the water-vascular
canals and contractile vesicle ; almost; certainly these
exist, but are exceedingly difficult to observe.

Dorsally to the stomach is situated a fairly large,
colourless body, exhibiting a central nuclear vesicle ;
this body was formerly thought to be the ovary, but
Dr. Zelinka has shown that the true ovaries in the
Gastrotricha are paired organs placed near the venter,
one on each side of the intestine, (thus corresponding
in position with the paired ovaries of the family
Philodinadje of the Rotifera). The large dorsal body
is a developing ovum ; whether this is contained
within an oviduct having extremely delicate mem-
branous walls, or simply lies freely in the perivisceral
cavity, is doubtful ; as also is its mode of exit from
the body.

The creature swims actively with an even gliding
motion through the water ; in no case did I observe
any jerking or springing, the weak body-spines being
probably useless for such a mode of progression.

The head is often freely moved up and down upon
the neck, but has not the constant drooping appear-
ance (in side aspect) noticeable in D. fusiformis.
The lateral lobes seem capable, to some extent at
least, of being protruded or retracted at the creature's
will ; at certain times, the outline of the head ap-
peared quite conical, or very faintly five-lobed (cf. the
figures), while at others, the savic animal presented
the distinctly three-lobed outline of the head already
described.

The present species, approaches in its general
outline D. longisetosum (Metschn.), but is at once
separated from the latter by the relative lengths of
the body and caudal bristles. The latter are, in
longisetosum, shown much less than half the
length of the lateral body-setre (which are described
as "very long and stout,") and altogether lack the
conspicuousness they attain in bisetosum. The pre-
sent form is also neaily twice the size of Metschni-
koffs species, and other differences exist which I
think fully justify me in regarding bisetosum as
specifically distinct.

The entire animal is quite colourless ; length,
excluding caudal seta?, about 1^5 inch.

In conclusion, the same pond has furnished me, on
other occasions, with specimens of Dasydytcs fusi-
formis, Spencer, and Lcpidcde^-ma rhomboides, Stokes,
(the latter only recorded, hitherto, from Trenton,
New Jersey), while at Chingford I have met with
Dasydytes goniathrix, Gosse, and D. ftsiformis,
Spencer. Within the last few weeks, at Oakley, in
Bedfordshire, I have taken Chcctonotiis Schultzei,

Metschn. These records, insignificant by themselves,
serve to indicate the probability of much more exten-
sive results, if microscopic workers direct more sys-
tematic attention to the study of this small and obscure
group of animals.

Percy G. Thompson.
Bow, E. 5

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

We are pleased to observe that an old and valued
correspondent of Science-Gossip, and an ardent
naturalist and botanist, Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell,
has been appointed Curator to the Museum, Institute
of Jamaica, Kingston (which will henceforth be his
address). The institute is to be congratulated on
having selected such an efficient curator.

The great engineer, Sir John Hawkshaw, died in
his eighty-first year on June 2nd.

Professor Roberts-Austen has discovered the
most brilliant-coloured alloy yet known. It is of a
rich purple colour, and has bright ruby tints when
light is reflected from one surface to another. It
consists of 78 per cent, of gold, and the rest alu-
minium.

The science of geology has received royal recog-
nition. The Director of the Geological Survey of
the United Kingdom has been made a Birthday
Knight, and is now Sir A. Geikie.

Professor Leidy, the well-known American
naturahst, author of the " Rhizopods of North
America," is dead.

At a recent meeting of the Linnaean Society, Mr,
Robert Deane exhibited specimens of the rayless
daisy, said to grow abundantly near Cardiff. Will
some reader there send us a specimen ?

We have received the " Report of the Felsted
School Nat. Hist. Society for 1890." It displays a
healthy, active, and intelligent love of natural science,
and indicates a state of things the author endeavoured
to realise in "The Playtime Naturalist."

The latest Bulletins issued by the U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture are Nos. 7 and 8 of " Insect Life," and
No. 24 "The Ball-Worm of Cotton," by F. W.

Neaily.

Bishop Mitchinson's papers in " Nature Notes,"
on "The Distiibution of Rare Plants in Britain,"
are very suggestive.

We are pleased to call attention to a highly
important brochure by the Rev. H. A. Soames,
F.L.S. (London: L. Upcott Gill), on "The Scien-
tific Measurement of Children." The author rightly

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

163

holds that the measurement of children, as they
grow, has not yet received the attention it deserves,
and he points to the opportunities afforded by schools
for settling this physiological matter. Mr. Soames
shows how the measurement should be made.

The Geologists' Association went for an excursion
on June 13th to Selborne, under the directorship of
Dr. Sclater and Mr. Wm. Whitaker, and on June
20th to Greys Thurrocks, with Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell
as guide.

" Pantobiblion, or a Review of the World's
Scientific Literature," published monthly, is among
the latest of periodical announcements.

We would strongly call the attention of our ento-
mological readers to the papers now appearing in
the "Entomologist," by Mr. F. H. Perry Coste,
entitled "Contributions to the Chemistry of Insect
Colours." They approach tliis very important sub-
ject from a new direction.

The Rev. Hilderic Friend has an important paper
in the last number of the " International Journal of
Microscopy and Natural Science," on the "Earth-
worms of Scotland."

A PIECE of genuine good work has been the result
of the "Microscopical Society of Calcutta" — Mr.
H. H. Andrew's "Notes on Indian Rotifers." It is
accompanied by three exquisitely-drawn plates and
twenty figures.

All who have the opportunity should pay a visit
to IMr. Wm. Bull's Orchid Show in King's Road,
Chelsea.

Dr. a. Milnes Marshall's lecture on "Animal
Pedigrees" is being continued in "The Midland
Naturalist."

The next Annual General Meeting of the British
Association will be held at Cardiff, commencing
August loth, under the Presidency of Dr. Wm.
Huggins, F.R.S., <S:c.

The Anniversary Meeting of the Linna;an Society
this year was noteworthy for the address of the
president. Professor Stewart, on "The Secondary
Sexual Characters of Animals and Plants." The
society's gold medal was awarded to Dr. Bornet, of
Paris, for researches in botany.

The Council of the Geologists' Association have
decided to publish the long and valuable paper by
Messrs. Harris and Burrowes on the Eocene and
Oligocene Beds of the Paris Basin as a separate
publication, illustrated by maps, sections, etc., at is.
to members, and 3^. to non-members.

H.R.H. the Prince of Wales fixed Wednesday, the
17th of June, for the dehvery by Lord Rayleigh of

the first of the two lectures at the Royal Institution,
in connection with the centenary of the birth of
Michael Faraday, and Friday evening, the 26th of
June, for the second lecture, which was given by
Professor Dewar.

It is with unfeigned regret we have to record the
death of an old friend and contributor to Science-
Gossip, Professor M. Duncan, F.R.S., &c., in his
sixty-seventh year.

ZOOLOGY.

"Our Lane." — We are sorry that through in-
advertence the name of E. H. Robertson, the writer
of the charming articles in our columns bearing the
above title, was omitted.

The Chitinous Plug in Mollusca. — In the
December number of Science-Gossip I made re-
ference to the first volume of Balfour's " Comparative
Embryology," and gave the reference as on p. 229.
I find that Mr. Webb says in the June issue that this
page is not the right one. I can only add that it is
the page in my copy (2nd ed. 1885), and also in
seven other copies which I have taken the trouble
(perhaps very needlessly) to examine. This is the
only remark I think I have need to make on Mr.
Webb's criticisms. ^ — J. IV. Williams.

Hydrobia Jenkinsi in Essex. — I have received
a letter from Mr. W. H. Smith, of Canning Town,
enclosing copy of a communication addressed by him
to the editor of the " Essex Naturalist," dated 27th
March, 1 891, which he informs me he has sent to
you for publication. Should you insert his letter, I
beg you will also publish my reply, dealing with the
facts connected with the discovery of Hydrobia,
Jenkinsi in Essex. When Mr. Allen, of Canning
Town, sent me, on the 29th of January, 1889, a few
hydrobia shells from Beckton for identification, I
noticed at once a few with carinated whorls, a form
which had never been described as British, and
concluded they were either a new species or had
been introduced. I took the three specimens up to
Mr. Edgar A. Smith (Nat. Hist. Museum) on the
2nd of February, and we then decided to send them
to Dr. Boettger, of Frankfort, who replied that they
were not known on the Continent, and that the
nearest ally was H. Legrandiana, of Tasmania. I
then wrote to Mr. Allen (i6th April, 1889), suggest-
ing that they had been introduced in some raw
material, such as flax, hemp, &c., which might have
been used in some of the manufactories in the dis-
trict, and proposed to visit the locality. In his reply
(17th April) he offered to accompany me, and wrote :
"The discovery is yours, and I am glad of it ; I
leave the determination in your hands." On the
19th of April Mr. Allen and I went down to the

164

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SI P.

Beckton Marshes, close by the Barking Jute Factory,
and gathered some specimens from the brackish
water-ditches. I subsequently made many inquiries
with regard to the manufactures in the district, but
was unsuccessful in obtaining any helpful information.
Later in the year I again visited the locality, and
collected a goodly number of specimens, some ot
which I forwarded to Mr. E. A. Smith. There the
matter rested, so far as I was concerned, till I read
Mr. E. A. Smith's description of the form as a new
species in the "Journal of Conchology " for October,
1S89 (published 17th January, 1890). In the same
journal further notes appeared, showing that the
form had already been taken at Greenwich about
two years before (1887), and of which Mr. Allen was
aware, having informed me in April 1S89, that he
had received the information from a correspondent of
his in Glasgow. Later on, Mr. Jenkins' Notes on
Hydrobia appeared in Science-Gossip for May,
1890, and on the 8th of May Mr. Allen wrote me :
* ' I am sorry to see you are not mentioned as the one
who first noticed the shell as non-British." I ex-
hibited a series of the shells, with drawings of the
animal, at a meeting of the Essex Field Club (17th
May, 1890), which was duly recorded in our "Essex
Naturahst," 1890, p. 128, and then associated Mr.
Allen's name with the first discovery in Essex. I
had certainly hoped to have had the first record in
the journal of our club, of which Mr. Allen is a
member, but the publication being already a fait
accompli, I asked Mr. E. A. Smith to write a short
notice as a record for the "Essex Naturalist," to
which I added some remarks, and gave a drawing of
the shell and animal (vide "Essex Naturalist," 1890,
p. 212), I certainly did not again mention Mr.
Allen's name therein, which was scarcely necessary,
but would now express my regret for the omission.
I am still of opinion, as expressed in the note referred
to, that the species may have been introduced. In
conclusion, I may say that the species is not, as Mr.
W. H. Smith says, a freshwater mollusc ; and as to
the vague statement that he examined the mollusc
months before my visit to Beckton, that may be true,
but is certainly misleading, whether intentional or
otherwise, inasmuch as that was not till after I had
seen it, and called Mr. Allen's attention to the
differences. — Walter Crouch, Wanstead, Essex.

Hydrobia Jenkinsi. — Mr. W. H. Smith writes
as follows to the "Essex Naturalist": — "Referring
to the 'Note on Hydrobia Jenkinsi'' (in the Oct.-
Dec. 1890, issue of the Journal), by Mr. Edgar A.
Smith, F.Z.S. It has given me pleasure to note
that Mr. Smith has acknowledged receiving his first
acquaintance with this new species of hydrobia at the
hands of Mr. Walter Crouch, and that the latter
gentleman obtained some specimens at Beckton in
the early part of 1889. It affords me pleasure to say
that the species referred to was discovered at an

earlier period than 1889 by a member of your club,
who invited Mr. Walter Crouch to visit Beckton.
The journey to Beckton resulted in obtaining
specimens. It is due to the energy of Mr. W. Allen,
of Barking Road, Canning Town, that this species
became known to Mr. Crouch and other eminent
conchologists. I send you this communication in the
•hope that you will make its contents generally known
to your members, and I ask this favour because I had
the pleasure of examining this remarkable fresh-water
mollusc months before Mr. Crouch's visit to Beckton,
and I can personally vouch for Mr. Allen's anxiety to
make his discovery known. I think Hydrobia Alleni
would be a more commendable name than Hydrobia
yetikinsi. — IV. H. Smith.

NoTHOLCA ACUMINATA. — Referring to Mr. Clarke's
note on this rotifer in your issue for June, though
given in "Hudson and Gosse" as very rare, it is
common in several ponds in the vicinity of Chester,
In water from one of these ponds it is not unusual to
see six or seven of these rotifers at once in the field
of the 2-inch objective. — A, H. Hignett.

Preserving Fish. — Every naturalist knows the
difficulty of preserving fish so as to show their natural
form and colours. We are only too well acquainted
with the stiff, colourless caricatures of the most
graceful and often beautifully tinted of living crea-
tures, seen in museums and elsewhere. Consequently
we are pleased to call attention, after having carefully
examined various specimens, to the really beautiful
examples of prepared fish now being set up by Mr.
J. Sinel, of Jersey. In one specimen of the blue-
striped wrasse {Labriis mixtiis), all the striking
colours are replaced true to nature ; in another
(Platessa), part of the colours have been replaced ;
in the bass {Labrax lupus), which usually turns white
in drying, all the colours have been retained. Gene-
rally speaking, however, Mr. Sinel's system enables
all the natural colours to be kept unchangeably. The
specimens are also secured against shrinkage, and
cannot possibly be injured by damp. Naturalists and
anglers can now obtain beautiful specimens of fish
for wall and other ornamentation ; whilst to museums,
Mr. Sinel's examples commend themselves for their
beauty, naturalness, and neatness.

BOTANY.

RuBUS laCINIATUS. — Years ago I found a curious
cut-leaved bramble growing at Chislehurst ; one
bush at Prickend, and one on Chislehurst Common,
apparently quite wild. I sent specimens to one or
two botanists, and was informed that it was merely a
form of R. discolor {rusticanus) by a good authority.
In Science-Gossip, 1889, p. 188, I referred to the
plant as R. rnsticantts, form incisits. A few days ago
I sent a specimen to Kew, and it is now identifi

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

165

with R. laciniatus, Willd., a cultivated species. I
have seen R. laciniatus growing in ISIr. Jenner \Yeir's
garden at Beckenham, where young seedlings were
very freely produced ; and I presume that the cut-
leaved brambles of Chislehurst were simply garden
escapes. — T. D. A. Cocker ell.

Lateral Tubercules. — I find that tubercules
may be produced in the axils of leaves by artificial
means. This may be done by cutting off" a plant of
Ranunculus ficaria, L., near the root, and placing it
in a well-corked bottle ; after remaining there for a
week or two you will see tubercules of various sizes.
They are produced by the reversion of a bud into a
root, as is often seen in the potato. This proves
that fasciculated roots are but modifications of the
stem. — Henry E. Griset.

White Heather. — In the June No. of Science
Gossip (p. 141), Mr. D. H. S. Stewart, enquirer of
the white-flowering variety of Erica tetralix has
been met with elsewhere than in the Scottish High-
lands. I am happy to be able to inform him that I
have occasionally met with it in the heathy tracts of
this part of the country, possibly half-a-dozen times
in fifteen years. Last summer my little boy with
me found a whole patch of it, and carried home a
handful of the white-flowered stalks. I may say that
I have never met with the white-flowering heather,
though the ordinary purple-flowered variety covers
miles of country about us. By the way, would not
Mr. Stewart be more correct, if, following Sir J. D.
Hooker (* Student's Flora '), he assigned the Ung to
the genus Calluna rather than to Erica, — A. Irving,
Wellington.

GEOLOGY, &C.

The Geology of the Neighbourhood of
Winchester. — We have received a new edition of
the neat, small, and handy description of the strata
and fossils of this district, written for the geological
section of the school, by a good geologist, who is
evidently too modest to put his name to it. It is a
model of compendious, useful, and accurate local
information, giving all the thicknesses of the cre-
taceous zones in the neighbourhood of Winchester,
the anticlinals of the Hampshire chalk, a list of pits
and sections, with the names of the fossils found in
each, and also a tabular list of fossils (Winchester :
J. Wells).

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Are Fossils ever found Alive 1 — At the close
of a gossipy geological address some little time ago,
I was somewhat startled by an old gentleman who
rose to ask, " Are fossils ever found alive, sir ? "
*' Well, no," I replied, " they are not," And I then
explained for the second time the nature of a fossil.

The old gentleman, however, was irrepressible.
" As a boy," he said, "he was present when a live
toad was found in a rock 150 feet below the surface,"
and his story was so circumstantial that I asked him
to put it in writing, which he afterwards did, as
follows: — "I am a living witness to what I here
state, J. Gittus, In hearing a lecture on the subject
of fossils, there were several kinds of animals on the
screen, and led me to ask the question whether any
of them were ever found alive. Because, when I was
a boy, I lived with a man who worked in a stone
quarry, and I was very often v/ith him, and in getting
the stone we had to blow it up with gunpowder, and
one time after blowing it up, one of the men picked
up a stone that was noticeable, like two stones joined
together, and broke it in two, and in it was a live
toad which they afterwards destroyed. The question
how did that animal get there, and how did he live
pent up in that stone ? — for the place where we found
him was very deep, about 150 feet or more from the
top of the rock, and he must have been there a length
of time shut up in that stone, now this is a mystery,
and cannot be fully comprehended by mortal man.
But as I lay in my bed one Sunday night, I was
thinking about it ; the thought struck me that as there
is a great deal of water running through all rocks, that
one of the eggs of these animals must have been
washed there from some spring or pool, and lodged
in some hole of the rock, and come to life, and by
the water that flowed through the rock kept alive,
but in what way I cannot tell ; but he who placed it
there could keep it alive as well as he kept Jonah
alive in the fish's belly." 'J. Gittus, Bridport
Street, No. 5." So runs the old gentleman's story.
A well authenticated account of a similar discovery
has recently been sent to me by Miss Lydia M,
Hawker, of Bredon, near Worcester, Miss Hawker
writes: " On the evening of September 27th, 1886,
I was sitting alone in the sitting-room at my home in
Bredon, Worcestershire, the other members of my
family having retired. On the fire was one large
piece of coal the size of a man's head ; this had been
put on four hours previously. I attempted to break
it to pieces, but, owing to its hardness, I could only
chip off fragments. I then drew aside the ash-pan
to make room on the hearth for the rest of the lump,
set it down, still intact, and kneehng on the hearth-
rug, watched for a couple of minutes to assure myself
that all was safe. Suddenly my ear caught a sound
of crackling and sputtering in the lump. I turned
sharply round to reach my little sponge-lamp, and
behold ! a small, long-legged, dusky creature, resem-
bling a frog, had leapt into the ash-pan, and was
hopping about between its bars. I grasped the
situation — and the bars — on the instant, but the bars
burnt my fingers, so I jumped up for a kettle-holder.
When I returned to the rescue, poor froggy had taken
shelter (?) under a projecting shoulder of his former
home. I gently touched him ; he was dead ; stiff",
and sadly shrivelled up. He is still in my possession,
he keeps well, and is in good spirits — of wine." —
F. T. Spackman, 7, Richmond Road, Worcester.

Pin in Hen's Egg. — As a reader of Science-
Gossip, I wish to bring the following case before
your notice, as I consider it most remarkable, and
if you think it worihy of your attention, to describe
the facts in your interesting paper for the purpose of
consideration and enquiry, A friend of mine keeps a
quantity of fowls. They are the common kind,
usually called, I think 'Barn-door fowls.' On Thurs-
day, April 9th, a number of eggs were collected. A
few were given to the gardener. His wife boiled one
for his breakfast on April loth, and when he cracked

i66

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

it a pin was found in the yolk. The yolk and
white were in places of a blue-black colour. I should
feel obliged if any reader would inform me whether
they have ever heard of anything being found before
inside an egg, and how it got there. — F. J. B,

Snails as a Cure for Consumption.— Your
correspondent, Mr. J. W. Williams, may. be interested
in learning that the snail cure for consumption has been
continued in this locality (Truro) in one instance,
at least, almost up to the present day. I well
remember, some twelve years since, an individual
living in an adjoining parish being pointed out to
me as a " snail or slug eater," I forget which. He
was a delicate-looking man, and said to be suffering
from consumption. Last summer I saw this man,
and asked him whether the statement that he was a
"snail-eater" was true: he answered, "Yes, that
he was ordered small white slugs — not snails — when
he was young, for ' decline,' and that up till recently
he had daily consumed a dozen or more every
morning, and he believed they had done him good.
There is also another use to which the country
people here put snails, and that is as an eye applica-
tion. I met with an instance a few weeks since, and
much good seemed to have followed the use. —
Edmuttd Rundle, F.H.C.S.I.^ Royal Cornwall
Infirmary, Trtiro.

How I saved my Hive of Bees. — Bee-keepers
will long remember the disastrous year of i8S8. I
have kept bees for thirty years, but have never met
with its parallel. Colonies were numerous, and
strong enough, but so little honey was gathered, that
by May 28th in the following year nearly all were
dead, whole apiaries having succumbed, and even
where feeding had been aitempted few survived.
Out of my stock of bees, numbering about twenty-
five, three only remained alive, and one was con-
sidered to be very weak ; under such circumstances
one naturally thought more of again increasing one's
stock, than of obtaining honey. My neighbours were
equally or even more unfortunate than myself, in
more than one instance not saving a single hive. I
hoped that all three of my hives would swarm
naturally, but as is usually the case, the bees would
not do as you desired them ; two out of the three did
not swarm, and I was not disposed to make them do
so artificially. The one that did swarm had survived
some unusual troubles, having been blown over by
the heavy gales on two occasions ; the first time on
February 4th, when all the hives in the kitchen
garden shared the same fate ; the second time on
March 21st, when it was found topsy-turvey. It was
a frame-hive, and swarmed naturally on June 2 1st.
After the swarm had been shaken into the hive, the
queen left the bees, and attempted to return home,
but on her way I observed her, and caught her, and
put her into the hive wherein the swarm had been
taken, and all became quiet. This swarm, though
rather late, did remarkably well, became very
numerous in bees, and gave me a nice lot of super
honey, still leaving it very heavy, the bees having
had the advantage of ready-made combs. Now I
looked on this hive as my best, and great things
were expected from it the following season. On
April I2th, 1890, I noticed that no loaded bee
entered this swarm, although pollen was carried in
pretty freely by the bees of the other hives. The hive
was heavy and contained plenty of sealed honey :
this excited my suspicions about the state of the
queen, and made me fear that what I looked on as
my best hive would come to grief. On the 2rst,

having satisfied myself that the hive was queenless,
and that it contained a fair quantity of bees and
abundance of sealed honey, I gave it a comb
containing eggs and brood from another hive, taking
away from it a comb of honey, which I gave to the
hive from which I had taken the brood. On the
25th I observed the bees carry into the hive a little
pollen. On the 2Sth, I examined the hive, and
found two queen-cells, nearly perfect, but not yet
sealed over. On the 3rd of May I again examined
the hive, and found both queen-cells sealed over.
On May loth, about 3 p.m., as I was standing
near the hive, I saw a queen come out of it, and
take flight ; I waited until she returned, and saw
her re-enter the hive ; she did not appear to have
met with a drone during her outing ; I was, however,
satisfied that the hive had succeeded in obtaining a
queen, and so might recover. On the 12th of May,
I again saw a queen return to this hive ; and on the
i6th I saw the same thing happen, making it appear
that there was some difficulty in finding a mate. On
the 2 1 St I examined the hive, but could find neither
queen nor eggs ; still a few bees continued to carry in
pollen. On the 26th I left home for three days ; and
on June 4th I made an examination, and although
I did not see the queen, I found brood, some of
which was sealed over ; so that the presence of a
queen was assured. On the 19th of June, I again
examined, and saw her majesty. The hive went on
very well, and though it gave me no super, it gathered
sufficient honey to carry it through the winter
without feeding. I think this little bit of experience
is sufficient to show how greatly superior frame hives
are to the old straw ones : and what a great deal of
pleasure and instruction may be had by keeping a
hive or two of bees. The hive has weathered safely
the past unusually severe and prolonged winter, and
is now hard at work. June ist, 1891. — C. F. George,
Kirt07i in Lindsey.

White Varieties. — I don't know whether you
you care for further notice of the white varieties of
harebell and heather. Near Settle in Yorkshire I
have several times found the harebell perfectly white,
but never more than two or three stalks in one place.
The flowers were very much smaller than the common
blue one. In a wood, three miles from the same
place, I found a patch of white heather about two
yards square, some three or four years ago ; but to
my great disgust two years ago, I found some game-
keeper had rooted all up, save about as much as
would cover a soup-plate, I suppose because it was
interfering with several young trees. I have, how-
ever, marked down about twelve other roots in a
thirty-acre moorland field. — W. S. Sykes.

A Suescalarid Monstrosity of Helix
rufescens. — On looking through my note-book I
find mention of a subscalariform monstrosity of Hdix
rufescens, which Mr. A. Mayfield sent me from Eaton,
Norwich. As I do not believe that I have yet
published a description of this shell, I now do so here.
Transcribed from my notes, it runs thus : — Large,
brownish with white band at periphery ; spire elevated
with the whorls subcarinated and flattened ; body-
whorl smaller than in type, depressed, subcarinated ;
sutures, deep, canaliculate ; umbilicus wide, revealing
the whorls of the spire ; inner lip distinct, and
reflected on to the body-whorl so as to form a well-
marked "parietal wall" ; the whole shell subscalariform.
Diam. 11 -5 mill. ; alt. 8 mill. I£ this monstrosity
has not been named before, it might be called monst
subscalare. — J. IV. IVillia/ns.

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

167

The conversazione of the Royal Society took
place on the 17th ult. Astronomy presented its
usual fascinating aspect. Professor Norman Lockyer
exhibited first a group of sun-spots, photographed in
India as they were passing over the solar surface,
and showing a succession of remarkable changes,
suggestive of terrestrial cyclones, as they traversed
the visible face of the sun. The greatest curiosity was
awakened by the professor's photographs of the
temples at Karnak and Edfou, in Upper Egypt.
There is now a theory that these famous structures
were oriented in such fashion that the rays of the sun
at 6 A.M. and p.m. on June 21 traversed the whole
central aisle of these edifices — in other words, that at
least six thousand years ago there was in Egypt a
people sufticiently advanced to know astronomically
the true length of the year and to determine with
precision such data as they needed for their daily
sacrifices. The same kind of astronomical motive is
supposed to have prevailed with the builders of the
huge monoliths of Stonehenge. At the instance of
Mr. Norman Lockyer, the Egyptian Government
sent out on June 21 observers to Karnak and Edfou
to make observations of the shadows which the lines
of the temple will make with its principal axis, and
as the motion of the sun in the heavens is known, it
may be possible to argue backwards from these data
to the probable age of the temples. Similar obser-
vations were made on Salisbury Plain, with the
• curious result, perhaps, of learning from the sun's
motion in the ecliptic how long ago it is since the
stones of that huge place of sacrifice were placed in
position by a relatively advanced race of people
inhabiting these islands thousands of years ago.
Mr. Francis Galton explained in the Council Room
his method of personal identification by means of
finger prints. It is a curious fact that the small
papillary ridges on the bulbs of the fingers, and on
the inner surfaces of the hands and feet, persist from
youth to age, and are the most unchanging, and
apparently the surest means of pronouncing on any
human being's identity. With exact anthropometric
measurements and descriptions, science is circum-
venting the criminal classes, and the time will
probably come when to the evil-doer Mr. Galton's
pictures of the finger tips will be a means of deciding
who's who that law-breakers will positively detest
and dread. Among the instruments Mr. Wimshurst's
improved influence machines deservedly attracted a
large amount of attention ; but, perhaps, the most
interesting of recent electrical achievements is Mr.
Crookes's volatilisation of metals. The distinguished
chemist and physicist has discovered that he can
evaporate gold, silver, and other metals by the
electric current. This is accomplished without accu-
mulation of heat, and what looks like the vapour of
gold settles as a thin transparent film on a surface of
glass. In transmitted light the hue is first ruddy,
then, as it becomes denser, greenish and faint yellow,
and only finally golden when the film is thick enough
to prevent light passing through. A curious and
instructive magnetic phenomenon was exhibited by
Mr. Shelford Bidwell, in a nickel pendulum which
was shown to be magnetic when cold and non-magnetic
when heated to about 300° C. Mr. Francis Darwin
displayed an instrument called a cup-micrometer for
measuring the rate of growth of a plant, while
Mr. Walter Gardiner has devised instrumental means
to determine the forces concerned in the absorption
and flow of water in plants. Mr. Arthur Clay-
den, M.A., showed by means of the electric lantern
some fine meteorological pictures of clouds, taken by
the camera in such style as enormously to simplify
the study of cloud formation, a department in which

a good deal remains to be done. Some fine negatives
of hoar-frost were thrown on the screen, the pictures
bringing into strong relief the manner in which the
ice crystals form on the margins of leaves, the loose
fibres of a string, and the thorns of a briar, and the
tendency of these crystals to arrange themselves in
line with the direction in which the wind is blowing.

Atmospheric Nitrogen and Root-Tubercles.
— Two American chemists, Messrs. W. O. Atwater
and C. D. W^oods, have published in the American
Chemical Jotirnal the results of a large number of
experiments they have been making on the important
subject of the acquisition of atmospheric nitrogen by
plants. They experimented with peas, oats, and
corn, and they conclude that nitrogen is readily
absorbed from the atmosphere by these plants, where
treated with "soil-infusion," and that the gain of
nitrogen is dependent on the number of root-tubercles
which the application of " soil-infusion " induces. It
should be remembered, however, that these root-
tubercles have been found to be literally nests of
bacteria, so that the latter may probably produce the
nitrogen by assisting in the nitrification of the soil.

Atmospheric Nitrogen and Leguminos/e. —
Experiments have been conducted by two French
chemists, Messrs. Schloesling and Laurent. It has
long been suspected that the natural order of plants
Leguminosse had the power somehow of absorbing
atmospheric nitrogen. The leguminose plants ex-
perimented upon were grown in closed vessels, which
were so arranged that the gases introduced and with-
drawn could be accurately measured and analysed.
They found that when the leguminose plants were
watered with an infusion of nodosities from other
plants of the same order, there was an absorption of
nitrogen much greater than could be put down to
errors of experiment. On the other hand, when the
leguminose plants had not been inoculated in this
way, and were therefore free from nodosities, no such
absorption of nitrogen was observable. It is believed,
therefore, these experiments demonstrate that under
the influence of microbes leguminose plants can fix
and utilise the gaseous nitrogen of the atmosphere.

Eriophorum latifolium. — It is stated in
Syme's " English Botany " (vol. x., p. 76), that the
downy-stalked cotton-grass {Eriophorum latifolium)
is "rare in the south of England." Being in the
neighbourhood of Fair Mile, near Esher, Surrey, on
the iSth inst., I noticed what I believe to be a very
large bed of it, the mass of cotton-like heads at-
tracting attention and admiration even at a distance.
The plants were growing in a morass surrounding a
pond, locally called Black Pond. Though familiar
with the locality many years ago, I had not visited it
for some years and was struck with the appearance.
It may be mentioned that the nearest railway station
is Oxshott (the name really means Oakwood, but the
L. & S. W. R. has now fixed upon it one of the
local spellings, suggesting the idea of bovine slaughter
at the place), on the new line from Surbiton to
Guildford. Although the spot gives the idea of
complete sequestration, it is in fact only a few
minutes' walk from the high road between Esher and
Cobham, near what is called Fair Mile. If I am
wrong with regard to the species, I should be glad
to be corrected. — W. T. Lynn.

Coccus cataphractus. — Will any of your
readers be kind enough to inform me where this
scale insect is to be found? — H.A.

1 68

EARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised ADVERTiSEMENTS,forthcpurpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To OUR Recent Exchangers. — We are willing and helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis.
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

T. H. C— The eighth edition of "The London Catalogue of
British Plants " is published by George Bell & Sons, price iid. ;
the " York Catalogue of British Mosses," price dd., by Ben
Johnson & Co., Micklegate, York.

R. C.— Your specimen is the blue flea-bane [Erigeron
acris).

M. B. Davies. — The insect imbedded in amber is a well-
preserved dipterous fly, probably a species of Tachina.

S. Lowe. — You will find a long chapter on fossil sponges
(illustrated) in Taylor's "Common British Fossils" (London:
Chatto).

R. A. Cooper. — Write to Messrs. W. Wesley & Son, Essex
Street, Strand, for their " Scientific Book Circular."

G. A. Hankey. — I. The cuticle of leaves is the delicate
transparent skin which covers the epidermis. It rarely shows
any signs of structure, only markings produced by contact.
It can be detached by slow maceration, and then comes off the
surface both of the epidermis and hairs. 2. The mould on
palm leaves to which you refer is probably Graphiola pheenicis
(see Science-Gossip vol. for 1877, page 124).

M. E. Pope. — Your specimen is a variety of the meadow
orchis [O. morio).

R. C. C— The specimen enclosed is evidently a very remark-
able variety of Cardaniine pratensis. Send a specimen to the
Secretary of the Botanical Record Club.

H. Roberts. — Many thanks for your kind offer. Will you
send us a short specimen of the sort of thing you mean ?

EXCHANGES.

Offered, six different specimens of Scotch granite, one
German, and one Sweden, polished on one side and rough on
other ; also marine shells. Wanted, Newman's " British
B^itterflies and Moths," or what offers?— W. D. Rae, 9 Clare-
mont Terrace, Alpha Road, Miilwall, London, E.

Wanted, Maltwood's finder. Offered, magic-lantern, small
telescope, micro-slides or objects, dried plants, &c. — G. H.
Bryan, Thornlea, Trumpington Road, Cambridge.

Wanted, Morgan's" Animal Biology," Marshal and Hurst's
"Practical Zoology," Prantl's "Botany," Bower's "Practical
Botany," Foster's " Embryology," Howe's "Atlas of Biology."
Must be cheap, in good condition, and recent editions. What
offers to — Shoosmith, Stopsley, Luton, Beds.

Wanted, Helix arbustorum, var. viarinorata. Will give
H. arbustorum, var. pallescens, in exchange. — H. Milnes,
Winster, near Derby.

Wanted, Berkeley's "Outlines of Fungology." Will give
in exchange Beale's " Microscope." Also wanted, mosses,
lichens, and other cryptogams. — C. F. Rea, S.S.M., Black-
heath, S.E.

Science-Gossip, six vols., unbound, including 1884 and 1885,
with plates; Milner's "Gallery of Geography," twenty-fbur
i^. parts; last two vols, of "American Monthly Microscopical
Journal; also "Manual of British Coleoptera," by Stephens,
good as new. Wanted, tricycle, or botanical books, Cooke's
" Freshwater Algse," good micro mounts, &c. — J. C. Black-
shaw, 179 Penn Road, Wolverhampton.

Offered, Science-Gossip for 1890, Karl Russ's " Speaking
Parrots," Greene's "Amateur's Aviary." Wanted, back vols.
of Science-Gossip, " Selbome Magazine," scientific works,
gjc.— H. Roberts, 60 Princess Road, Kilburn, London.

Wanted, "Insects at Home" (Wood), or other work on

British insects. Offered, "Insects Abroad" (1883).— Rev. X.,
12 The Park, Ealing, W.

Will give is. dd. for a clean copy of "The Zoologist" for
January, 1881. — Chas. Oldham, Ashton-on-Mersey.

Any entomological specimens (of whatever order) would be
gratefully received from anyone having duplicates, and having
no use for same. Box sent (prepaid) and return postage. —
T. R. Hamilton, 11 Crozier Road, Mutley, Plymouth.

Offered, "The Entomologist," vols. 16 to 21 bound, and
vols. 22 and 23 unbound ; " Builder," vols. 56 and 57 bound,
vols. 55, 59, and greater part of 58 unbound. Exchange for
foreign land shells, conchological or other scientific books. —
G. S. Parry, 18 Hyde Gardens, Eastbourne.

Offered, 325 stamps, all different, many of them rare.
Wanted, British land and freshwater shells, foreign marine
shells, or offers to— P. R. Shaw, 48 Bidston Road, Oxton,
Birkenhead.

Wanted, any land or sea shells from the West Indies.
Have a number of natural history and other books to offer in
exchange. List sent. — W. Jones, jun., 27 Mayton Street,
Holloway, London.

Wanted, a few good fossils from Devonian or old red sand-
stone. A good equivalent given in exchange in minerals, such
as fluor spar, galena, malachite, travertine, radiated calcite,
chalcedony, blende, crystals of quartz, selenite, pyrites, calcite
and others, or good carboniferous fossils. — P. J. Roberts,
II Back Ash Street, Bacup.

Wanted, fossils from various localities. A large number of
good duplicates offered in exchange. — Thomas W. Reader,
171 Hemingford Road, London, N.

Wanted, specimens of British and foreign echini (sea
urchins), or crabs, in exchange for British land, freshwater, or
marine shells or fossils. — F. Stanley, M.C.S., Clifton Gardens,
Margate.

West African bird-skins in exchange for books (must be
latest editions) on natural history.— J. H., 19 Connaught
Street, W.

Eleven vols, of Science-Gossip, 1880-90, including the ^
coloured plates, for rare British shells or eggs, foreign shells,
or offers. — Thos. H. Hedworth, Dunston, Gateshead.

Helix lainellata. Papa ringens, and numerous other species
offered for varieties of British land and freshwater shells.
Also wanted, Continental and foreign land and freshwater
shells. — Rev. John Hawell, Ingleby Greenhow Vicarage,
Northallerton.

For a slide of diatoms, or botanical mount showing placenta,
tion, &c., I will send a tube of Chara showing cyclosis. — J. C.
Blackshaw, 179 Penn Road, Wolverhampton.

West Indian, South .4.merican, and Australian land shells
wanted in exchange for European, South African, or North
American land, freshwater, and marine. Any foreign corre-
spondence esteemed. — S., 40 Braybrooke Road, Hastings.

Ur.io pictorum, from a Cheshire locality, offered in exchange
for good land and freshwater shells, British or foreign. — R.
Cairns, Queen Street, Hurst, Ashton-under-Lyne.

Wanted, land and freshwater shells, in exchange for living
Pupa secale, and others. Several vols, of Science-Gossip and
other books offered for shells. — H. T. Smith, 11 Oakfield
Place, Clifton, Bristol.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.
" Popul.-ir Lectures and Addresses," by Sir William Thomson,
LL.D., F.R.S., &c., vols. i. and iii. (London: Macmillan &
Co.). — "Lessons in Elementary Biology," by Professor T.
Jeffery Parker (London: Macmillan & Co.). — "The Making
of Flowers," by Professor G. Henslow (London: S.P.C.K.).—
"The Species of Epilobium occurring North of Mexico," by
Professor Trelease. — "Notes on Indian Rotifers," by H. H.
Anderson. — " The British Noctuse and their Varieties," by
J. W. Tutt (London : Swan Sonnenschein & Co.). — " British
Cage Birds," Parts 13 and 14. — "Glimpses of Nature," by Dr.
Andrew Wilson (London : Chatto & Windus). — "The Mediter-
ranean Naturalist," No. i. — "American Microscopical Jour-
nal."— "The Microscope." — "The American Monthly Micro.
Journal." — " American Naturalist." — " Canadian Entomolo-
gist."—" The Naturalist."— The Botanical Gazette."— " The
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Essex Naturalist." — "The Garner." — " Feuille des Jeunes
Naturalistes."—" Journal of Microscopy," &c., &c.

Communications received up to the ioth ult. from :
J. E. L.— A. J. H. C— J. H.— F. B.— C. G.— A. B.— G. H. B.
— W. H. S.— A. E. B.— E. B.— W. D. R.— J. H. C— W. W.—
Dr. A. I.— M. D. D.— C. F. G.— J. W. W.— W. J. S.—
H. H. A.— J. W. B — D. E. C— T. D. A. C— E. R— H. E. G
—J. H. S.— E. D. H.— F. J. B.— W. C— H. M.— C. F. R.—
J. C B.— H. R.— H. T. M.— C. O.— T. R. H.— E. H. R.—
W. E. S.— G. S. P.— P. R. S.— Dr. R. L. R.— J. W. R. S.—

F. S.-S. P.— T. W. R.— J. H.— W. J., jun.— P. J. R.—

G. A. H.— J. C. B.— E. L. S.— J. C. S.— R. C— H. T. S.—
J. H.— T. H. H.-J. S.— F. B.-A. H. H.— F. B.— H. M.—
&c., &c.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

169

WORDS OF BIRDS.

By J. H. GORDON, B.A. OxoN.

SUPPOSE many
people will dis-
believe me and
think me foolish
for tr}ing to fool
them, but it is not
so. I am as sane
and as honest as
most men are ;
and so, when I
say I can under-
stand and appre-
ciate the songs
and languages of
birds, you can
take it or leave it
just as you will.

Now there must
be no mistake, and
so I had better
say at once that I
cannot understand all birds ; any more than Professor
Max Miiller can understand all the languages of
men, in this best of possible worlds ; no, that would
be rather a big job, to say the least of it, though the
language of birds when you once understand the
method of it, is not nearly so hard as one would
expect.

If I had my choice, in fact, I would much rather
take up the grammar of a rook, or even a common
and vulgar sparrow — and the sparrow is vulgar, too,
sometimes when he likes — than wade through the
horrible inflexions, conjugations, declensions, and
other monstrosities, that hide their sweetness under
the names of Latin and Greek, and what not.

Ves, there is much to be said in favour of the
speech of the playful warbler. He is in general
simple and honest in his likes and dislikes, and in ex-
pressing these likes and dislikes. Here and there I
do not deny, I have come across a very Gladstone
amongst the rooks, who would gather in a crowd and
No. 320. — August 1891.

talk to them literally for hours ; but he was an ex-
ception, and it usually ended in his starting a new —
being compelled to start — a new realm of wisdom
by his own account.

With the sparrow, too, I have some fault to find ;
his language is not always so decorous as it should
be ; indeed, to hear what the sparrow — the London
one, especially — says, when he is disturbed at a feast,
or the grain spilt from a passing horse's nose-bag, is
simply horrible, and would often make me, had I
been some what thinner and lighter in bulk, pick up
a stone and teach them a lesson.

After all, the sparrow must be forgiven much, for
he is a very talented bird ; he has a greater proportion
of brains to his body than pretty well any other bird,
and a great deal more ideas. A very gifted bird is
the sparrow, though he does swear terribly and gamble
all the sunny days on the house-tops, and jeer
wickedly at the homely cat. But great men have
great vices as well as great virtues ; and so is it in
bird-land.

Let us look at another warbler who is very much
more greatly admired, and yet whose brains are the
minimum possible to the realm of air. The nightin-
gale is the one I refer to ; and every one knows how
even delicate girls will go out at night-time to hear
this songster ; and yet with all this glory, he has the
smallest vocabulary than any bird I know of. I
fancy if the charming maidens who listen shivering
and wondering to him as he sings in the neighbouring
bush, knew what he meant, they would have him
away in disgust.

For this sweet songster, the nightingale, is an awful
gourmand ; and thinks of nothing but filling himself
with worms, grain, anything in fact that comes to hand.
When he sets them so simply, and we all believe him
to be singing to his mate, he's doing no such thing ;
it's the early worm he's singing to, it's the early worm
he is glorifying with that divine music ; and it is
because the early worm is later than usual, that he
sings at all.

I

IJO

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Just give him an early worm and see what he
does.

Sing his thanks, you think ? No, indeed, if he does
iiing, it is simply to ask for more, but usually he
remains silent.

" O early worm, O early worm !
Sweet and toothsome art thou
With the dew upon thee,
In the glory of the morn !
There is nothing sweeter than

The early worm
With the dew upon him in the

Glorj' of the morn 1 "

That is his song ; and he will go on singing that for
hours, until the early worm turns up. He knows no
more, poor bird, and what is worse, wants to know
nothing more.

He is ignorant : very, very ignorant ; and he is
liappy : very, ver}' happy in his ignorance.

His total vocabulary does not exceed some sixty
words ; whilst the sparrow, often runs over into
thousands, especially when he is in a rage, and at a
loss, then he invents a dozen new adjectives on the
.--pur of the moment. Besides the first bird sticks
superstitiously to his fifty words, whilst the sparrow
is simply avaricious of new ideas and new words.

Let a sparrow invent some taking phrase, and it is
immediately taken into the bosom of the language,
and in a few weeks in common use by all alike.

I remember a sparrow nicknamed a pea-shooter,
but what would be translated "quick-joy," because of
' the delight of eating the peas, after the rapid flight.
Now every sparrow — even the rather stupid hedge-
sparrow — speaks of many other things under that
name — as "rain-drops."

One of the pleasantest afternoons I ever spent was
passed in listening to a trial by rooks.

One of the rooks was accused of playing the decoy-
duck with some of his fellows, and of being in league
M'ith certain farmers ; and of thus causing many of
Jiis comrades to adorn the inside of a horrible
^chamber, called a pigeon-pie.

The defence was, that he could not understand the
farmers, nor the farmers him ; secondly that he gained
nothing by doing this great wickedness, as was evident,
if he did do it. But to this was replied that he was
allowed a free entrance into a granary stocked with
fresh grain ; and that was evidence conclusive.

The poor fellow, whom I pitied greatly, tried to
show that he had found a hole in and offered to show
it the[ company generally ; and this gained him many
friends ; indeed I thought he was safe. No, his
■enemies were too fiercely determined ; they reminded
tlie folk present of a new-sown field, and demanded
an instant verdict.

That decided it, and he was instantly found guilty
and pecked to death.

But there are other much more kindly views of
bird-life to be gained than the one I have described.

I remember one very affecting incident : a small

bird of the wren tribe had been severely hurt and was
still very ill when the day for the annual migration
came ; indeed, amongst all the denizens of the thicket,
a general belief was expressed that the poor little
wren must be left behind to winter in the land of
snow and frost.

His mate nearly lost her head in the agony of the
separation, for there were young ones, and one at
least had to go to look after them. There he stood
divided between love and duty ; should he leave his
dear companion of the summer, or should he leave
his young ones to go forth and die perhaps in a
foreign land ?

And so he flew from tree to tree in wild terror and
despair.

At length there came slowly two great cranes
across the wide expanse, and with a mad hope in his
heart he advanced and humbly besought their help.

They were kind-hearted creatures ; and on his
promising to keep a good look-out for frogs, they
took the wee wren under their wing, and carried her
along with her family into the-far away country.

Happy wren and happier cranes !

LAC {COCCUS LA CCA).

By H. DURRANT.

THIS insect, like its congener the cochineal insect,
belongs to the order Hemiptera. Its habits and
economy are nearly identical with it. When a colonj'
of several males and females select a branch of a tree
for their home, they puncture it, and a milky exuda-
tion follows, in which they are soon entombed, and
which furnishes them with both food and shelter. It
forms irregular dark-coloured, resinous masses on the
twigs of the trees which it surrounds, and which is
gradually added to until they are sometimes nearly
an inch in diameter. The trees most usually affected
are the Fkiis Indica and F. religiosa which both
abound in a milky juice. When the season arrives,
the natives collect the encrusted twigs, which in this
state are known commercially as "stick-lac." It
contains about seven per cent, of resin and one-
twentieth part of colouring matter. To separate the
sticks, colouring and other foreign matter, the stick-
lac is placed in large vats of hot water which melts
the resin and thus liberates all impurities. It is then
taken out and put into oblong bags of cotton, and a
man standing at each end of the bag holds it over a
charcoal fire. By this plan the resin is liquefied and
drops through and falls on to the smooth stems of the
Banyan tree, placed purposely to catch it. This
flattens it out into thin plates, and it is then known to
us as shell-lac. If the colouring matter has not been
well washed out the resin is left of a very dark colour,
thus we find in the lac-market, orange, garnet, and
liver varieties. That which most nearly approaches
to a light brown colour being the best.

HARJDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

171

When separated from impurities, pulverized, and
the major portion of colouring matter removed, it is
known as " seed-lac."

Sometimes it is melted up and made into small
cakes ; in this state it is known as " lump-lac." The
water which remains behind after the lac has been
softened is rich in a colouring matter akin to that of
cochineal, so that when strained and evaporated, a
beautiful purple residue is left. Cut into cakes this
forms another important article of commerce, viz : —
" lac-dye."

Shell-lac is soluble, in anhydrous alcohol, ether, fat,
and volatile oils. In the alcoholic solution it forms a
fine varnish.

Hydrochloric and acetic acids also dissolve it. It
is necessary sometimes to bleach it, for the manufac-
ture of colourless varnishes, sealing-wax, &c. This is
effected by dissolving in caustic potash, and passing
chlorine gas through the solution. It can then be
pulled and twisted into sticks. Seed-lac is much
more soluble in alcohol than shell-lac. Lac-dye is
soluble in sulphuric and hydrochloric acids. The
mordant for use in dyeing is generally bi-tartrate of
potass and protochloride of tin.

The chief use of lac is for the manufacture of
varnishes and sealing-wax. The differently tinted
sealing-waxes are produced by adding vermilion for
red, ivory black for black, and verditer for blue (some-
times smalt is used). For a white wax, the lac is
simply bleached as before mentioned.

To obtain the fine golden colour sometimes seen,
powdered yellow mica is incorporated with it. Shell-
lac is imported from Assam, Siam, and an inferior
quality from Bengal.

Pegu stick-lac is exceedingly dark, and therefore
not fitted for the finer uses of lac ; but the finest lac
of a very light sherry colour comes from Circar.

We receive something like 1,000,000 lbs. annually,
but a large portion of this is again exported to
Germany, Italy, and other foreign countries. To
each male insect it has been computed there are not
less than 5000 females, the males being twice as
large as the females.

After the first melting of the lac it is usually more
tenacious than after subsequent meltings, which tend
to make it hard and brittle. The ancient Chinese
were well aware of this property, as is evinced in some
of their works of art which remain perfect to this day.
They are usually small boxes either in wood or metal,
which have had a thin coating of lac, and while soft
and plastic, had been moulded into various beautiful
forms. Some of these works of art fetch considerable
prices.

At the meeting of the Geologists' Association on
July 3rd, Professor Blake read a paper on "The
Geology of the country between Bridlington and
Whitby, the district to be visited during the Long
Excursion."

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF

BRITISH DIPTERA.

By E. Brunetti.

{Continued frojii p. 160.]
(6.) Acalypterata.

OVER five hundred species of Acalypterata are
British.

An analytical table even of the groups is impossible
here, as Verrall admits twenty-two divisions, which
by his terminations would appear to be ranked by
him as distinct families.

Some Continental Dipterologists make a still
larger number of groups. Walker divided them into
ten.

Most of the Acalypterata are small flies, generally
obscure in colour, though some are brilliantly-
coloured and easily recognised, the majority, how-
ever, being closely allied and difficult to identify.

A great many species have been introduced as
British that do not appear to be so.

Mr. Verrall's arrangement of the genera differs from
that of Schiner (still probably the best Continental
authority), and I shall follow the former in these
notes.

Coj-ciylnra, Fin., inhabits damp fields and the
cooler spots in woods ; long-bodied and rather short -
winged flies ; long 4-6 mm.

Scatophaga, Mg., is a carnivorous genus, the
larv^e living in dung, two or three species being very
common everywhere, especially S. Stercoraria, L.,
which in the <5 is clothed in bright yellow hair, the
legs also similarly clothed, the antennce and eyes are
black, the wings yellowish grey ; long 8-10 mm.
In the S (smaller) the colour is entirely grey. The
face is reddish in both sexes.

Orygma, Mg., delopa, Mg., and Actora, Mg.,
are found on seaweeds. Flies of rather an abnormal
appearance ; flattened ; with small heads and short
thick legs, often pubescent.

In Helotnyza, Fin., the larva feeds on fungi, woods,
fields and pastures ; several species are British ;
allied.

Dryo7Jiyza, Fin., occurs in woods ; larva lives in
mushrooms. Large flies ; D, analis, Fall., has
marked wings.

Sciomyza, Fin., frequents short herbage and shady
woods. Several species are British, more or less
closely allied, rather small in size.

Tetanocera, Fin., is found on aquatic plants, larva
aquatic ; the flies not being rare ; of good size ;.
stoutly-built ; usually more or less tawny in colour,
and from 5 to 9 mm. long.

Limnia marginata, F., is a brownish-black fly,
with yellowish white face ; reddish front with two
black spots on inner side of eyes ; brown wings
covered pretty uniformly with small round grey
spots, the fore-border and tip being brown ;"^Iegs
brown ; common

long S mm.

I 2

172

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

Elgiva, Mg., resembles Tclanocera ; two or three
of the five British species are fairly common.

In Sepedon, Latr., the imago has the faculty of
running over the surface of water ; allied to El^^iva
and Tetanocera ; two species British.

Fsila rosa, F., feeds on the carrot in the larval
state. Ten species of Psila are British, resembling
Tetanocera.

Loxocera, Mg. (2 spp.), inhabits damp woods,
running over the foliage.

Micropeza corrigiolata, L., a fly with much attenu-
ated thorax and abdomen, and long and thin legs ;
found chiefly on broom ; long 6 mm. ; common.

Dorycera grainiinun, F., occurs in grass and

Fig. 145.— O/iV.r, L. (mag.;

Fig. 146. — Dl.ia, Mg. (mag.)

Fig. 147. — Limnobia, Mg. (mag.)

lowers, sometimes swarming ; larva aquatic ; pupa
two-horned.

Ceroxys, Mcq., on tree trunks.

Plafystoina seminationis, F., on flowers and hedges
— in spring ; somewhat resembling Lwinia marginata
in general appearance, but smaller and more stoutly-
built.

The Trypctidic are a well-marked group, in which
the wings are beautifully ornamented with brown
and black markings, thus affording an easy means of
determining the species. The principal genera are
Trypeta, Mg., and Tephritis, Latr., all the genera
occurring on plants, the larvae being leaf-miners.

Lonchcea, Fin., and Falloptera, Fin., inhabit fields
and grassy banks.

In Saprouiyza, Fin., the larvffi live on decaying

animal matter. Macquart, a French writer, has
found them in fungi ; about twenty species are
British ; many common ; mostly closely allied, and
nearly all yellowish, with yellowish wings.

S. rorida, Fin., is tawny; face broad, wfth a
small black spot on the vertex ; eyes black ; wings
yellow ; legs pale yellow with black tips ; common ;
long 4 mm. S. liipuliria, F., is distinguished from
the latter by a blui.sh-grey. thorax.

Oponiyza germinationis, Fin., very common every-

Fig. 148. — Ptychoptera, Mg. (mag.)

Fig. 149. — Rhyphus, Latr. (mag.)

Fig. 150. — Tanypus, Mg. (mag.)

Fig. 151. — Method of pinning down Diptera, &c.

where. Yellowish, with a dorsal row of blackish-
brown spots on the abdomen ; face, antennce,
and legs yellow ; wings pale grey, the two transverse
veins and border towards the tip blackish ; long
4 mm.

Sepsis is common on umbelliferous flowers.

S. cynipsea, L., smooth ; shining black ; wings
clear, with a small black round spot at tip ; long
4 mm. ; larva lives in decaying animal matter ; very
common everywhere.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

173

Piophila casei, L., is the common " cheese-
hopper," living in old cheese. The imago is shining
black, with the lower part of the face yellow ; clear
wings ; hyaline black legs with the base of the
femora and tarsi yellowish ; long 3-35 mm.

The other British species, P. lutcata, Hal., is
closely allied, the larvre living in old bacon. Kirby
and Spence have described its life history.

The Ephydrince are a group of closely-allied,
sombre-coloured small flies, of which the British
species have been worked out by Haliday. They
are tolerably abundant in Ireland, but also occur all
over England in grass, fungi, and ditches ; some on
aquatic plants, and a fen on the sea coast, and in
salt-marshes.

Hydrellia griseola, Fin., probably the commonest
species, is blackish grey, with clear wings, reddish
eyes and black face, which, when seen from below,
shows a wide whitish stripe in the centre ; long
3 mm.

Drosophila, Fin., is found on Crucifcnc, the larvre
feeding an oak-apples. Their movements are slow ;
at least one species (D.funebris, F.) occurs in houses,
collecting round beer and wine casks. Reaumur
described the larva of one species.

Meromyza, Mg., is a genus of limited extent, of
small black and yellow flies, inhabiting herbage.
Two species are common ; the peculiar venation
affords an easy means of recognition.

Chlorops, Mg., is an extensive genus, of which
Verrall gives eight species as indigenous, though
probably several more will be found in Britain,
most of them common, living in the larval state on
wheat and barley, one species thus destroying the
sexual organs of the barley.

Sometimes they occur in swarms. The species
are closely allied ; generally yellow in colour, marked
with black ; but some of them are tolerably easy to
recognise. They inhabit sunny fields and banks,
chiefly occurring during July and August.

Oscinis, Latr., infests wheat, their habits being
similar to those of Chlorops.

Agrornyza, Fin., supplies us with eleven species,
found in fields and woods ; small darkly-coloured
flies ; closely allied.

Fhytomyza, Fin., has a venation of its own, and is
allied to Agrornyza. The European species of this
genus, as in Agrornyza, are very numerous. They
occur on plants from April till the end of summer.
\Valker speaks of a species infesting the corn-
feverfew.

Borborus, Mg., is a genus of well-built, sombre-
coloured flies, several species being common,
especially B. equinus. Fin., which is a small brown
fly, the abdominal segments being sharply marked
off; the face yellowish ; the legs brown, with lighter
tibiae ; the wings nearly clear ; very variable,
especially in colouration of legs ; long 3-4 mm.
Haliday has monographed the British species of

Borborus. The larva; live in decaying animal and
vegetable matter.

In Limosiiia, Mcq., the venation is again peculiar
to itself, about twenty species being British. Haliday
has monographed them.

Asteia, Mg., is found on haystacks.

Cordyhira piibera, L., Wlk. ii. PI. xiii. 2.
Scatophaga scybalaria, L., Curt. 405. Orygma
hutiwsuin, IMg., Wlk. ii. PI. xiii, 5. Dryomyza
Jlaveola, F., Wlk. ii. PI. xiv. i. Sciomyza albocostata.
Fin., Wlk. ii, PI. xiii 7. Tetanocera ferruginea.
Fin., Wlk. ii., PI. xiv. 2. Psila fimctaria, L., Pauz.
XX. 22. Ortalis guttata, Mg. Curt. 649. Ulidia
deniandata, F. Wlk. ii, PI. xv. 4. Tephritis corni-
culata, Wlk. ii, PI. xv. 6. Sepsis anmilipes, Mg.
Curt. 245. Chlorops taiiiopus, Mg., Curt, Farm. Ins.
PI. H. Fig, 2. Agrornyza denticoniis, Pauz., Wlk.
ii. PI. xviii. 3. IJmosina sylvatica, Mg. Wlk. iL
PI. xiv. 9,

30. Phorida,

Over twenty species of this family are British, the
larvae feeding on animal and vegetable substances.
Bouche thinks some species are parasitic on larvae.

Phora nifipes, Mg., lives on nearly everything, a
correspondent of mine once bred it from a beetle
(Rhizostrogiis solstitiaHs, Latr.), one of the scarabKid?e.
It is a blackish-brown fly, with pale yellowish-
brown legs and clear wings ; long 2 mm.

The venation of this family is easily recognised,
being unlike that of any other group.

Phora rufipes, Mg., Wlk. ii. PI. xix, 6. P.
abdominalis. Curt. 437.

III. Eproboscidea.

In this group the larvae and pupre are developed in
the abdomen of the female. In the imago the head
is retracted, and the antenna placed in a cavity
in the head. Wings rudimentary or abnormal ;
parasitic,

31. Hippoboscidii.

All the species of this family are more or less
uncommon ; the antenna; are stylate, the prothorax
distinct.

Hippobosca eqiiina, L., known as the forest-fly, is
parasitic on horses and cattle, and occurs in the New
Forest and other parts of Britain, It is brown, the
dorsum of thorax darker, with a pale yellow triangular
spot in the centre ; scutellum yellow ; wings, abdomen,
and legs pale brown ; long 7 mm.

Melophagus ovimis, L., is the sheep-tick. The
head is distinct from the thorax, the antennae are in
the form of tubercles ; no ocelli.

Stenopteryx hirimdinis, L., lives on the swallow,
arid is not unfrequently found in their nests ; head
placed in a cavity of the thorax ; antennae ciliated ;
ocelli present.

174

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

Ornithomya avictilaria is parasitic on birds,
usually the plover, partridge, and lark.

Curtis gives good plates of three species : —
//. V(]iciiia, L., Curt. 421. S. hiriiiuUnis, L., Cuitf
122. J\L oviniis, L., Curt. 142.

32. BrauUdic.

The one British] species of this family, Braula
cicca, Nitzsch, is a small, horny, shining red-brown
apterous fly with black spines and hair ; proboscis
prominent, horny, yellow ; antenna three-jointed ;
scutellum and hreteres absent ; legs short, ail of
equal length ; tarsi five-jointed ; last joint with
large broad claws. Parasitic on bees ; very rare.

33. NydcribidiL.

In this family the body is crustaceous, the head
small, the legs thick, long and bristly, the abdomen
being composed of five or six segments in the cT, and
only two in the 9 . The coxae are remarkably large.

Two species of iV^'^r/mi^/a are British, N. Hermanni,
Leach, and N. Latreillii, Leach, the latter being
rather smaller than the former ; both species are
rare, and infest the common bat.

Ayctcrihia Latreillii, Curt. 277.

In conclusion I should like to reiterate that this
paper is only intended as a groundwork on wliich
beginners can build up a more extensive knowledge
of this order, and is written more for the purpose of
gaining this neglected group additional students
than to represent even an approach to a handbook of
' British Diptera.

The descriptions, though short, are, I trust,
concise, and may enable beginners to obtain a fair
acquaintance with the general appearance and
structural characteristics of the majority of families
and sub-families ; and I am in hopes that the
diagrams of wings, though only roughly delineated,
may supply the student with the means of identifying
many a genus.

I may add that, whenever my limited hours of
leisure permit, it always affords me the greatest
pleasure to render any assistance I can — in the way
either of naming specimens or supplying furtlier
information on any particular group.

E. Brunetti.
129, Grosvenor Park, Cafnberwell, S.E.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

r^LIMPSES OF NATURE, by Dr. Andrew
\JT Wilson (London : Chatto and Windus). Dr.
\Vilson has long earned his spurs as a trusted and
talented populariser of science. A few priggish
specialists, wlro imagine that a knowledge of a few of
the muscles of a flea's foot, entitles them to speak
authoritatively about the Creator and the creation,
sometimes sneer at "popular science." They might
as well sneer at popular politics, popular art, or

popular theology. The greatest populariser of the
latter was Christ himselt. Knowledge, to be useful,
must be democratic. Hence we have no sympathy
with the few prigs who would keep what little they
know to their own select circle ; and, whenever they
have anything to say, say it in the least understand-
able and most technical phraseology their limited
knowledge of language permits. All knowledge
belongs to humanity, and the man who undertakes
the responsible position of interpreter of science to
the people, occupies a most important place. It is
given to but few men to be real teachers and genuine
popular writers. There have been thousands of
schoolmasters, but only one Dr. Arnold ; hosts ol
naturalists, but only one Gilbert White and one
Richard Jeffreys. The genuine populariser of science
possesses a distinct and rare gift. You can train
thousands of specialists to any department of work,
if they only possess industry enough ; but all the
training in the world would not make popular
instructors of them, like Charles Kingsley, Richard
Proctor, and Andrew Wilson. Therefore we welcome
this charmingly got-up book, with whose contents
many of our readers have doubtless already made
themselves partly acquainted in the pages of the
"Illustrated London News," where there may have
been suggested to them the desire to see these clever
papers collected in an available and consultable
form. The numerous illustrations, which accom-
pany the text now for the first time, render the
descriptions all the more intelligible.

Our CouHtrfs Flowers, by W. J. Gordon (London :
Day & Son). A beginner in English botany could
not do better than procure this book. It is illus-
trated by upwards of 500 chromo-lithographs, which,
if a trifle over-coloured, can easily be allowed for,
and will doubtless tone down. Besides these, the
chapter headed " Index to the Genera " has a clear
and easily understood woodcut of the generic
characters of each kind. The chapter "Index to
Species " gives a clear account of each species of
wild-flower. There are also chapters on "Local
Names," "Classification," "Tabular Scheme,"
" Natural Orders," " Examples of Identification" (a
very useful chapter to a beginner), "Derivation of
Generic Names," &c., as well as a copious glossary.
As it is bound in limp cloth, it can easily be
carried in the pocket. For the purpose of merely
identifying common British plants, it is one of the
best and cheapest works we have.

Handbook of the London Geological Field Class
(London : George Philip & Son). A neat, handy,
and much required manual for the happily increasing
tribe of amateur London geologists. Five years ago
Professor Seeley, F.R.S., started a London field
class for geology, and took the members to all the
best sections and fossil collecting-grounds round the
metropolis. Professor Seeley is a born teacher, and
delights in his work. You have only to interrogate

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

175

any of the students of his field-class to find with
what affectionate enthusiasm they regard him. The
present volume is in reality the notes made by the
students themselves, and is a sample of their note-
books and records of observations. It is a capital
digest of Professor Seeley's lectures on these occasions.
The book is illustrated by capital sections drawn by
Mr. Nicol Brown. It is a record of honest work
earnestly done, and is therefore both a vade-iitecum
and a stimulant to all those who desire to explore
the interesting geology of the London district for
themselves.

Outlines of Field Geology, by Professor A. Geikie
(London : Macmillan). This is the fourth edition
of Professor (now Sir Alexander) Geikie's well-
known and popular little book. "We have no
hesitation in saying it is the best of its kind ever
issued. No other authority is so capable of teaching
field-work, considering his position as the Chief of
the Geological Survey, and none other is more ready
to teach. The present fourth edition has been
thoroughly revised and considerably enlarged, and
there is much in it which is new, especially that part
giving an account of the schistose rocks. New
illustrations have also been added where necessary.

Among the Butterflies, by B. G. Johns (London :
Isbister & Co.). We are pleased to see Mr. Johns
so capably following his father's footsteps as a good
naturalist. The present little volume is handsomely
got up, and the twelve plates, which contain sixty-
seven figures of our English butterflies, are excellent
specimens of natural history wood-cutting. Mr.
Johns is possessed of much literary ability, and tells
his story pleasantly and gracefully. This ought to
be a very popular little book.

The Human Epic. Cantos I.-V., by J. F. Row-
botham (London : Kegan Paul & Co.). The author
of this suggestive poem is an old contributor to
Science-Gossip. He has already won his spurs as
an acknowledged poet ; and this, his latest book,
affords fresh evidence of the natural insight which
all genuine poetry possesses. Tyndall somewhere
says that the rhythmical movements of the molecules
of a drop of water, and their relations to the
mysterious and unknown forces governing them, if
even baldly told, transcend in dramatic interest a
book in " Paradise Lost." Mr. Rowbotham is one
of the first of the younger school of poets to see the
vast advantages which science holds out of subjects
for poetic treatment. Tennyson made the discovery
half a century ago. Mr. Rowbotham heads the five
cantos of his "Human Epic" as follows: "The
Earth's Beginning," "The Origin of Life," "The
Silurian Sea," "The Old Red Sandstone," "The
Age of Trees." Geology is full of natural poetry,
and the author is a good geologist, as well as
" Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford." We cordially
commend Mr. Rowbolham's charming cantos to all
nature-lovers.

ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS.

No. 4.

THE genus Centropyxis is also a very common
form here, and from the writings of others,
appears to be widely distributed. I find it in almost
all my collecting-places, the various wells, ponds, and
ditches furnishing well-marked varieties. It is closely
related to Diffiugia ; and indeed it is frequently
impossible to determine to which of the two a
particular specimen may belong. The shell is of
various shades of brown, and is composed of
chitinoid membrane, incorporated or covered with
a variable proportion of quartz-sand or diatoms ; the
latter, however, I do not find so frequent a con-
stituent of these shells as in the genus Difflugia. The
greater number of those having a diatomaceous cover-
ing, I procure from several shaded wells where those
algse are plentiful. From Sphagnum, most of the
forms of this genus have had' the chitinoid membrane,
either straw-coloured or a pale, smoky brown, some-
times with a few scattered sand-grains, more
frequently entirely without. In my experience the
shells of this variety are very shallow. The brown
membranous base connects this genus with Arcilla.
In the ordinary form, the test appears on the dorsal,
on ventral aspects, sub-circular or ovoid ; but on a
side view, which is not quite so frequently jjresented,
it will be seen to be deepest behind the mouth ; in
other words, the mouth and top of the shell are
eccentric in opposite directions. In this particular it
resembles Diffhtgia constructa, so much so indeed, as
to be with difficulty distinguished from it. The
chief points of differences between the two are that
Centropyxis is more decidedly brown, is not so high
from the mouth to the fundus, and the margin of the
inverted mouth is prolonged into two or more append-
ages. The drawings will help to make clear the
form and general appearance. It will be seen that
on a side aspect it is somewhat cap-shaped, being
highest behind the oval opening. The most common
form has a variable number of spines, more or less
divergent, from two to nine^ placed laterally and
dorsally. These are of the brown basal membrane
only. The mouth is large, sub-circular, deeply
inverted, and according to Professor Leidy, the
margin is produced in one or more appendages.
This is generally, from the opaqueness of the shell,
impossible to make out, and I have myself never
been able to demonstrate the peculiarity, though I
have had hundreds under observation at various
times. In no case can it be seen, except in the
lateral aspect of the shell, and only then in specimens
of clear chitine, free from sand-grain. Size from

m to --m of 'in inch.

Fig. 152. A very common form here, of linear
and navicular diatoms ; with spines.

176

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

^'S- 153- Side view of large specimen, whose test
is composed of large and small sand-grains.

Fig. 154. Same test, ventral aspect.

Figs. 15s and 156. Front and side aspects of a
dark brown variety, test, sand and dirt.

F'g- 157' Test of smoky yellow chitine, incrusted,
posteriorly with flocculent dirt, but no sand-grains or
diatoms. From Sphagnum.

The genus Arcella disputes with the previous form
the honour of being the commonest of the testaceous
Rhizopods. They are generally found in association,
and there are few microscopists who are not familiar

Fig. 152. — Centropy.xis acnlcata.

Fig- i5i-—Ct)tlrofiyxis aculeata.
(Side \ie\v.)

Fig. \n.—Ccntropyxis aculcata.
(Ventral aspect.)

with their brown tests. Arcella is sometimes very
numerous, not only in the light sediments of our
ponds, but also among the Algae clothing the sides.
It was discovered by the illustrious Danish natural-
ist Ehrenberg about sixty years ago. There are
many varieties, some very striking ones, but the
forms gradually merge into each other, so that many
authorities consider them as one species. Leidy
gives five specific names to the more widely separated
forms, two of which, A. communis and A. discoides,
are found in all the waters of this district. The
shell is composed of chitine, light or dark brown in

colour, though occasionally I have found colourless
specimens. This membranous test has a minutely
hexagonal, cancellated structure, something like the
marine diatom Coccinodiscus, though this is not
always demonstrable. Many of the varieties have
really elegant shells, the dome of some having
angular facets, or pits, which being thinner and
lighter in colour than the connecting parts, have a
charming effect. In A. dentata there are a variable
number of recurved spines, arranged round the
circumference of the shell, and I figure a form in the
ventral aspect, somewhat approaching this, though
not sufficiently so to justify its being placed in that
species.

In A. viilgaris or communis, as it is indiscrimately

Fig. iss.— Ce';/>v/y.t2s aciilt'ntiX

Fig. z5C:)- — CeHiroJiy.xis acuieata.

Fig. 157. — From Sphagnum, above Billaden.
Test of smoky yellow Chitine incrusted with
dirt, but no sand-grains or diatoms.

called, the test as generally seen is a brown circular
disc, with a central round opening for the emission
of the pseudopods. On a side view, the outline is a
low campanulate, with the basal border rounded, and
the mouth inverted. The height is about half the
breadth.

The sarcode is colourless and the mass rests on the
base and around the inverted funnel of the mouth,
and is connected with the fundus, or top of the shell,
by threads of the ectosarc. There are two nuclei,
one on each side, and several cont. vesicles. These
details can only be made out in transparent speci-

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

1 1

mens. Size variable ; average about ^^ or jjj-i of an
inch in diameter. A. discoides, whicli is, I think, the
prevailing form here, is in my opinion a mere
variety, and not worthy of a specific designation.
The only difference between it and the preceding
is that the fundus is lower, the height of the
■shell being only about one quarter of its breadth.
Irregular, or deformed forms are not of uncommon
■occurrence.

J. E. Lord.
Ra'i'teitstall.

A DAY AMONG THE WILDFOWL.

W' E started early this morning from the old and
well-known village of Bosham on our
weekly outing among the birds, and anticipation ran
liigh, for our two old boatmen, Kit and Bill, told us
that never since the " Rooshen War" had so many
wildfowl been seen inside and out the harbour. A
fresh wind blows from the north-west, and as the tide
is just at low ebb, we can scud down the channel
between the mudlands, and so in a great measure
escape the ice, which is now here in all but Icelandic
severity. A hasty look round to see if all is ready
for action and nothing forgotten, and then up sail
and off. Day has just commenced, and the birds are
astir and by this time fully aware that all men here
have guns, and all boats under weigh have men.
Close to hand sits solemn and still the heron,
apparently fast asleep ; for once he is allowed to
stay, but had he been old, and in good plumage, his
time would have been short. As the light varies
other forms come into view. Carrion crows, gulls of
all kinds and sizes, and all eager for the smallest of
things in the way of an early breakfast. Curlews by
dozens, starting up with their weird whistling ;
whaups, or trant?, as they are called, very like the
curlew, only smaller ; turnstones, dotterel, dunlin,
in thousands— so many in fact that one gunner shot
twenty-seven dozen and five at one shot — and last, but
mot least, the homely ever-present rook, driven from
<he fields and pastures to the muds and flats to pick
up a strange living by the tide. On scuds the boat,
her crew all alert for sport, and as strange birds do
not visit here every winter, each is anxious to find at
least one prize as a memento of this severe time.
^'Burds ahead," quickly says Kit, and with that from
^he bows he produces a long and well-worn old
fowling-piece, which he said had done great work in
his father's time. Not a movement on board, and as
the boat comes up to them away they go, all over
the place, giving us just the slightest chance to score,
and out falls a mallard with a dull thud— dead. This
is the commencement of a glorious day, and now
that the guns have started the game, strings of birds
are seen passing right and left, some going up and

some down, all in a hurr}', and all out of shot. Our
mallard retrieved, on we go, for our destination is
some five miles lower down, to the mouth of
Chichester Harbour, and as long before daylight we
have heard guns there, we know good sport is going
on, and want to be in the thick of it. Not very far
down we fall in with three divers, which prove to be
golden-eye ducks, and as we run down on them
they rise against the wind all together, and the long
gun brings them down in a pretty little heap,
fortunately too lifeless to try to get away. Still on
we go, and the farther we go the more the excite-
ment grows, for there are birds everywhere in sight,
and if this is so inside the harbour, what must it be
outside? Soon we get near the old coastguard ship,
and a short council of war is held to decide where to
go. Eirst we all land, and cross the shingle bank
that divides the harbour waters from the outside sea,
and what a sight meets our view ! As far as the eye
can reach are wildfowl, large and small, on the
water ; surely the whole Arctic supply is before us,
so vast is the number. There are acres of brent
geese — thousands and thousands of them. Here and
there grey-hags, bean and white-fronted geese show
up, and amongst them two fine specimens of the.
snow-goose. Ducks and widgeons in hundreds, a
few teal, scamp and pochard, tufted duck, here
and there a Black Sea duck (Scoter). Diving birds
there are of many kinds popping up here and there,
grebes of one or two sorts in sight at once, with
razor-bills and guillemots, and coming along from
Selsey Bill is a long string of wild swans. We wait
to see no more, but rush to the boat and quickly get
one gun on Hayling Beach, another on the Point of
Wittering Beach, and the boat itself right in the
fairway of the harbour's mouth, to intercept this
party, should they come inside. But 'tis no good,
they just sail majestically along over Hayling Island,
then turn up the left wing, and round into the
Emsworth Channel, and are safe for a time. Our
time is fully occupied in shooting with more or less
success at the different parties coming or going, and
fine sport it proves. Now a duck, now a widgeon,
and now a goose comes tumbling down, first from
one gun and then another, and still the hungry ones
come on, for the food in the harbour flats. While
we have been at our sport, other people have been
busy, at one time no less than thirteen punt-gunners
are in sight at once, and every now and again the
roar of a great gun adds to the general commotion.

The day now wears on apace, and as the shooting
is for a time slack a stroll round to see what the
other gunners have got is the order of the day.
Erom one we get a pair of shieldrakes, another has
some broad-billed scaup-ducks, another a red-breasted
merganser, another a splendid goosander, a fine old
male bird, and can tell of a puntsman who has shot
the hen, which we were afterwards fortunate enough
to procure, together with a very beautiful male

178

HA RD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

smew. Collecting all our purchases, we reach the
boat, and carefully packing up our specimens, we
decide, as the afternoon is far advanced, and the
journey a long beat home, to up and away, especially
as the swans are still in the harbour somewhere, and
we may perhaps fall in with them.

We start then and skirt the Pilsea Sands, in the
hope of picking up a crippled bird or two, and are
not disappointed, for we bag two more single geese
ere we reach Thorney Island, and at last get a sight
of some seven or eight swans feeding right in under a
bank. Oh for five minutes just the other side of that
bank ; but as this cannot be we sail steadily on, as
far away from them as we can, to pass them and
then cross over and sail down on them, as fast as we
can go. We manage all this, but they jump at
200 yards and sail away, and partly round us, and
to our joy go up and on our way to home. Another
mile or two, and we sight them again, and thinking
of nothing better, we do as we did at first, and this
time, amid a lot of quiet excitement, get within 100
yards before they again take wing. Once more they
go up stream ; but this time not so far, and soon
we are drawing on them. Will they wait ? No.
Something puts them up, some one way, some
another, and now the unexpected happens ; they try
to join, and to do this five of them come within
sixty yards of the boat. Bang ! bang ! from the
S-bore, and down falls the largest of the lot, a fine
old male hooper ; another sails away lower and lower
in the direction of Dell Quay, and finally disappears,
hard hit and never to rise again. This was verified
by the bird being caught next morning in a meadow.
One swan proved to be just under 20 lbs., and
crowned the happiness of all, for the right birds
came at last, and made a good finish to as pleasant a
day as any gunner ever had.

On reaching home we found a beautiful bittern had
been shot close by, and a fine pair of oyster-catchers.
These last we got from the owner, and they now form
part of that happy Saturday's spoils.

" Sea Fowler."

THE AVIFAUNA OF UPPER NITHSDALE.

A FTER a long residence in one of the beautiful
■L\. glens which converge at Thornhill on the
Nith, Dumfriesshire, I have taken the following notes
of the birds of the district.

During the last thirty years there has been a
serious diminution of the birds of prey. The pere-
grine falcon and merlin are rare, the kite is almost
extinct, while the sparrow-hawk and buzzard are
becoming very scarce. The kestrel, however, is
common, and may frequently be observed gliding
over the cliffs near the sources of our upland streams,
or pouncing on barn-door sparrows. Owls are very
plentiful. The woods around the ducal residence of

Drumlanrig, and the large quantity of natural wood
which adorns the hillsides along the banks of the
tributary streams offers them protection. The
tawny owl is the most common. It delights to utter
its screech perched on a coniferous tree, and it is
the boldest of its kind. The barn-owl is common.
The long-eared owl is both rarer and shyer. On one
occasion the nest of a barn-owl was found in a rabbit-
burrow.

The missel-thrush and blackbird are very common,
although, one summer about nine years ago, we
missed their delightful songs entirely. They seemed
to have succumbed to the previous severe winter.
The song-thrush is rare. The fieldfare comes to us-
in immense flocks in October, and in a few days,
strips every mountain-ash of its glittering red berries
which make these trees so conspicuous after their
leaves are shed. The dipper is found in all our
streams. The ring-ousel is not uncommon. Every-
where in early spring the simple song of the hedge-
sparrow greets us. The redbreast and chaffinch are
plentiful. The redstart and night-jar are rare. The
whin-chat is heard as it hops along our fences built
of uncemented whin-stones. The grasshopper-
warbler, and the sedge-warbler are rarely heard,
but the wheat-ear is common. Its nest is far from
being easy to find, on account of these same stone-
dykes.

The wood-warbler and the willow-warbler have
increased of late years. The golden-crested wren is-
plentiful in our fir-woods. Its nest, Ifhed with
feathers, is sometimes blown down from the pendent
bough. The wren and the willow-wren aie common..
The lesser white-throat and chitf-chaff are rare. The
tree-creeper is more common than appears, for its-
nest is most difficult to find.

The great-tit is rare, the blue-tit and the cole-tit
common. The long-tailed tit, to which Mr. Wallace-
has given a new significance by pointing out that it is-
a form specialised in the British Isles since their
division from the Continent, is rather scarce. It
makes its wonderfully artistic nest in almost inaccess-
ible black-thorn scrub. The pied wagtail is much
more common than the grey wagtail. The golden
plover and spotted fly-catcher are rare, but the nest
of the former is difficult to find. The garden-warbler
is not uncommon. The tree and meadow pipit are
abundant, so are the skylark and yellow-hammer.
We are far from being rich in finches, putting aside
the chaffinch. The common linnet is seldom seeu
except in flocks in winter. The same may be
remarked of the lesser redpoll.

The house-sparrow, rook, and starling, are ubiqui-
tous. The cuckoo is plentiful and arrives about the
last days of April. Although it delights to lay in a
smaller bird's nest, such as the meadow-pipit, I have
got its egg in the nest of a kestrel. The carrion
crow and jackdaw are not uncommon. The king-
fisher is exceedingly rare. As it commands a price, it

HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE - G OS SIP.

179

was entirely exterminated by a band of bird-catchers,
more than a dozen years ago, all along that finest
■tributary of the Upper Nith, the romantic and wood-
fringed Skarr.

The swallow, house-martin, and sand-martin are
■common — but the swift does not come. The ring-
■dove is abundant, 'but I have never observed the
xeed-bunting.

The following birds are very common : pheasant,
which has a stupid fashion of nesting on the road-
sides, exposed to school- children ; black-grouse,
partridge, lapwing, curlew, which arrive in March;
snipe, land-rail, which comes in the first days of May ;
moor-hen. The following are not uncommon ; red
grouse, heron, woodcock, wild duck. The black-
headed gull is very plentiful, but the common gull
less so. The teal land the little grebe or dabchick, I
have not observed.

On the upper courses of our mountain streams the
sandpiper may be seen wading. Snow-buntings are
among our winter visitors. About farmyards an
•occasional pair of bramblings may be noticed. In
fields where Pninella vulgaris grows, 'may be seen in
■certain seasons, flocks of twites. Our famous
naturalist. Dr. Grierson, lately deceased, put into his
museum about twenty years ago a golden oriole shot
mear Thornhill.

Enough has been written to show, that although
Thornhill and the three adjacent glens which
■converge near it are about twenty miles inland, there
is an interesting and well-stocked ornithological
•district to deal with — the chief paucity being in the
Slumbers of wading and swimming birds and those
more numerous where cereals are more abundant.

J. Shaw.

NOTES ON DOG'S MERCURY {MERCU-
RIALIS PERENNIS).

LOOKING at the small green flowers of Mercu-
rialis and its general want of attractiveness, it
s natural at once to class it with wind-fertilized
plants, but on closer examination it would seem rather
to be on the debatable land between anemophilous
and entomophilous plants, nor is it clear that we are
right in assigning it strictly to either. This has been
such a late spring, especially in the north, that
vegetation is unusually behind-hand, and it was only
■on the last day of March that the first specimens of
the pistillate flowers of Mercurialis put in an appear-
ance. The long spikes of staminate flowers were
fairly plentiful previous to that date, but the buds had
not opened. The leaves of this modest little plant
are not unlike those of the elder, some unbotanical
folks indeed call it "ground elder." We welcome
its coming less for its own sake, perhaps, than as
being the forerunner of the primrose and oxalis and
all the earlier spring flowers. It comes up, too, in a

business-like manner that is somewhat amusing, for
though one of the earliest flowers of the year, the
dog's mercury pushes its way out of the ground all
ready equipped for the battle of life, as if there were
no time to lose, and eager either to scatter its pollen
upon the spring breezes, or to display its humble
attractions before the insects should be drawn away
hither and thither by the bright colours and sweet
scents of more favoured competitors for their services.
Underneath the loose soil of the dry banks where it
flourishes, the little dog's mercury developes both
flowers and leaves in a wonderful state of forwardness,
so much so that it cannot bring them up in the
ordinary way, or the delicate blossoms would be
injured, so the plant as it emerges from the ground is
bent almost double, leaves and flowers looking down-
wards, while the strong arch of the stem lifts its
nurslings out of their dark prison-house and then
gradually straightens, until at last it stands erect,
bearing upon its upper portion both leaves and
flower-spikes that only need a little sunshine and a
little warm rain to bring them to perfection. By the
way, is light always necessary for the production of
chlorophyll ? Mercurialis is very green when it first
pushes out of the soil, and there are certainly embryos,
like the sycamore, in which the cotyledons are green
before they have burst the husk. But to proceed
more methodically with our plant. The first question
to arise is that of family or tribe, and without the aid
of books one might not at once give the dog's
mercury its true place with the Euphorbiaceje, nor
guess from outward appearances that it was so nearly
allied to the brilliant Poinsettia on the one hand, or
the evergreen box-tree on the other, though its
affinities with the stinging-nettle may be more
apparent. Mercurialis then belongs to the Spurge
family, though it contains none of their acrid milky
juices, and is even sometimes eaten as a vegetable.
The rootstock is slender and creeping, and therefore
it enables the plant to spread widely ; indeed these
creeping roots give our mercury an opportunity for
climbing where one would scarcely expect to find it-
The lower part of a \Yestmorland hedge is often pro-
tected by an outside fence made of large square slabs
of the slaty rock of the country placed close together
with their bases buried in the soil. The chinks are
sometimes filled up with the loose earth of the bank,
and the dog's mercury loves to take possession of
them by means of its creeping rootstock, mounting
continually higher and higher, and bordering the
slates with greenness. The stem is solitary and erect,
about six to eighteen inches high, frequently bent at
the bottom, and the leaves are crowded towards the
summit ; the whole plant is more or less hairy. The
leaves are opposite, very shortly stalked, ovate-lan-
ceolate with crenate edges. In the bud each half of
the leaf is rolled up towards the midrib and it is long
before the lower part fully uncurls ; the stipules are
very small. The stem is sometimes described as

i8o

HARDWICKKS SCI ENCE-GOSSJP.

four-angled, but this is scarcely correct ; there arc,
however, two distinct ridges on opposite sides of the
stem that change places between each pair of leaves,
just like the rows of hairs in Veronica chamadrys.
These ridges do not appear to be the vascular bundles
for the leaves above, because it may be seen on
reference to the drawing that they do not enter the
leafstalks but stop just between the stipules on the
opposite side of the stem, the next pair starting out of

at their edges, and form a sort of three-cornered box
that holds some ten or a dozen stamens springing
from a central disk. The filaments are long, slender,
and erect, the anthers are pendulous from a sub-
globose connective, and the dehiscence is extrorse.
In a unisexual flower such as this the pollen should
be examined in order to decide whether it be of the
light smooth kind adapted specially for wind-carriage,
or whether it have any of those roughnesses that

Fig. 159. — Early Leaf ot

ditto.

Fig. 15S.— Very young Male Plant
of Mercury.

Fig. 163. — Stamen and
Pollen (greatly mag.).

Fig. 161.— Staminate plant
(Nat. size).

Fig. 164. — Sta;ntn.

Fig. ifio. — Stem of
Mercuri.-»lis.

Fig. 162.— Flower greatly enlarged.

Fig. 165.— Early State
of Stigmas.

v^>-i(f5^^-^'

Fig. 167.— Ovary.

Fig. 16S.— Section of Ovary.

Fig. 166.— Pistillate Flower
(Nat. size).

the axils of the leaves above to stop between the next
stipules, and so on. The flowers of Mercurialis are
di(Xcious and small. The tall axillary spikes of the
staminate flowers arc certainly conspicuous, but the
pistillate are far less numerous and hide themselves
amongst the leaves so that they are not very easily
seen. The staminate flower is a very simple little
thing, being content with one floral envelope com-
posed of three sepals, that in the bud just fit together

characterize the pollen of entomophilous flowers and
that facilitate its removal by insects from one flower
to another. The pollen of Mercurialis is perfectly
smooth and most easily scattered, but then the pollen
of the Liliacese is also smooth and oval. The lily-
tribe is now greatly visited by insects, but Hermann
Miiller considers that the colour of the perianth must
have been originally greenish and unattractive, as the
dog's mercury is now. The long filaments are of

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

i8i

course characteristic of wind-fertilized flowers and so
far everything seems to favour the anemophilous
theory ; but how is it with the pistillate flower ? The
fertile plants are easily distinguished from the male
by the absence of the long green spikes, and might
easily be passed over as flowerless, especially in the
earlier stages, when the flowers are almost concealed
amongst the upper leaves, except perhaps one or two
that contrive to push out their heads, as if waiting for
any chance pollen that the wind might bring to them.
If one of the tiny inflorescences be picked it will be
found to be growing in the axil of a leaf whose lower
portion is very closely rolled inwards, the tip only
being fully expanded. Might not these be favourable

Fig. 169. — 3. Drop of Honey, i. Pistillate Flower (Mag.)

to the access of wind-borne pollen to the flowers ?
There are as a rule two flowers to each raceme, and it
s curious that the 'only bract belongs to the lower
flower, it being invariably absent from the upper one
in plants that have come under the writer's observa-
tion. The upper flower is the first to open ; it has
three sepals, one of which is removed in the drawing
that the essential organs may be more clearly seen ;
but when the perianth first opens, the flower is in
the condition shown in the above figure (2), very
quickly the large stigmas expand and spread out their
sticky crinkled surfaces to receive the pollen, and it
will be seen that the fertile flower of Mercurialis con-
sists principally of th; pistil with its enormously

developed stigmas. The ovary is two-celled and
even in a very young state it is not difficult to remove
the outer portion and find that one solitary ovale
fills each cell, that it is suspended from the placenta,
and if cut through lengthwise the pear-shaped embr/o
may also be discerned lying with its broad cotyledons
in the albumen, the radicle pointing obliquely up-
wards. To return again to our flower. The two
stamens have not yet been examined ; they may be
seen on each side of the ovary seated on two elon-
gated glands that alternate with the carpels and form,
the disk. The filaments have no anthers, for the
little knob at the top of the nearest must not be mis-
taken for one. It is intended to represent the drop ot
honey that is frequently if not always to be seen
exuding from the tip. That it is really honey one
may easily prove by tasting it, though at first sight it
might be taken for a simple drop of moisture. That
honey should be secreted by these two otherwise
useless stamens is interesting both as an example of
the way in which organs may be made to subserve
other purposes than those for which they were
originally intended, and also because honey is always
secreted for the special purpose of attracting insects.
See how this improvised nectary lifts its tempting
sweets above the recurved pistil, as though well
aware that such an insignificant little green flower
would never be suspected of containing any thing so
delicious and must needs hold out its cup of nectar to
passers-by and demand their attention ! The stami-
nate flowers of course secrete no honey, but their
abundant pollen is sufficient to ensure insect visitors.
What must we say then of Mercurialis ? The long
pendulous stamens, the light abundant pollen, and
the large stigmas, all point to the conclusion that
the plant is adapted exclusively for wind fertilization,
while the drops of honey on the two abortive
stamens seem to bid us not be too sure that this is
correct. The fertile flowers of Mercurialis open in
succession, and as the staminate flowers do likewise
there is always some pollen to be carried to them by
one agency or the other ; indeed it is remarkable how
few staminate flowers are open at one time, as if the
plants must needs husband their resources and not
expend them all at once with too lavish prodigality.
Mercurialis is said to have been named by the
Romans in honour of their god Mercury, following
the example of the Greeks, who called it the "plant
of Hermes," but whether because he was the dis-
coverer of the plant or of its supposed poisonous
properties is not clear. Our popular name of dog's
mercury is supposed to announce its inferior worth,
as in the case of the dog violet and dog rose. The
plant assumes in drying a curious blue tinge, which is
said to indicate the presence of indigo, and a German
botanist has detected two colouring substances in thfi
root, one blue, the other carmine.

M. D. D.

Hawks head, Ambleside.

l82

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G O SSIP.

THE KERMES [COCCUS ILICIS).

FROM the earliest ages this insect has been
employed to impart a scarlet colour to cloth.
It was known to the Phoenicians under the name of
Tola, and to the Arabians and Persians as Kermes or
Alkermes (Al signifying the, as in the Arabian words
Alchemy, Alkali).

Dioscorides calls it kohkos, and Pliny coccum and
gratium. In the Middle Ages it received the epithet
Vermiculatum, or "little worm," from its having
been supposed that the insect was produced from a
worm. From these denominations have come the
Latin cocci7icns, the French cramcisi and vermeil,
and our own words crimson and vermilion. The
Coccus ilicis, or kermes, is found in great numbers in
India and Persia, attaching itself to the leaves of a
small oak, the kermes oak (Querais cocci/era), alow
bushy shrub with evergreen spinous leaves, resem-
bling holly. The kermes is also found in the southern
countries of Europe, and in the south of France,
In parts of Spain, the kermes oak grows in great
profusion, as on the sides of the Sierra Morena.
Many of the inhabitants of Murcia gain a livelihood
by collecting kermes. This work is for the most
part done by women, who [scrape the insects from
the tree with their nails, which they allow to grow
long on purpose.

The insect attaches itself to the young shoots of
the shrub ; the female affixing itself and remaining
immovable, till after having reached its full size,
about that of a pea, which it much resembles, it
deposits its eggs and, dies. It is gathered before
the eggs are hatched, thrown into vinegar, and then
dried in the sun or in an oven. It has been, from
time immemorial, used to dye cloth, and is supposed
to have been the substance employed in dyeing the
curtains of the Jewish tabernacle. As the colour
which it yielded was more beatiful than the celebrated
Phoenician dye, it may have contributed to have put
an end to the monopoly of the Phoenician dyers.

The kermes yields a brownish red colour, which
alum turns a blood-red tint. Dr. Bancroft showed
that when a solution of tin is used with kermes dye,
as with cochineal, the kermes is capable of giving a
scarlet colour, quite as brilliant as that which cochineal
produces, and to all appearance more permanent. But
on the other hand one pound of cochineal will produce
as much colouring-matter as ten or twelve pounds of
kermes. Cochineal has supplanted kermes, and the
latter is now only cultivated by the poorer inhabi-
tants of the countries in which it abounds, especially
in India and Persia, and the peasantry of Southern
Europe.

Another species of Kermes {Coccus poloniciis) is
very plentiful in Poland and Russia, and is some-
times called the Scarlet Grain of Poland. Before
the advent of cochineal, this insect formed a con-
siderable branch of commerce. In the neighbourhood

of Paris, and in many parts of England, the C.
poloniciis is found upon the roots of the perennial
knawel {Scelo-aiithus pcreniiis), a plant not un-
common in Norfolk and Suffolk. The colour which
it furnishes is nearly as fine as that of cochineal, and
capable of giving the same variety of tints. The
insect was formerly collected in the Ukraine,
Lithuania, &c., and though still employed by the
Turks and Armenians for dyeing wool, silk, and hair,
but especially for staining the nails of Turkish
women, it is rarely msed in Europe except by the
Polish peasantry.

The same may be said of other species which the
cochineal has eclipsed, such as the Coccus, found
upon the roots of Fotciium sanguiso7-bis, an insect
formerly used by tlje Moors for dyeing silk and wool
a rose colour ; and the C. uva-nrsi, which, together
with alum, dyes crimson.

All these species owe their colouring property to a
principle called Carmine.

G. E. Cope.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The first volume of Messrs. Whittaker's new
" Library of Popular Science " will be an elementary
introduction to astronomy by Mr. G. F. Chambers,
whose larger works on the subject are well known.
It is meant especially for readers who have no
previous acquaintance with practical astronomy, and
in this, as in other volumes of the series, considerable
attention will be paid to efficient illustration and
explanatory diagrams. The volume will be ready in
the course of a few weeks, and will shortly be
followed by others.

At the general monthly meeting of the Royal
Institution on Monday, July 6, the special thanks
of the members were returned to Miss Jane Barnard,
Dr. J. H. Gladstone, the Rev. A. R. Abbott, Mr. T.
F. Deacon, Mr. A. Blaikley, and others, for the loan
ol the valuable and interesting collection of Faraday
memorials shown in the library on the occasion of
the two lectures on June 17th and 26th given in
commemoration of the Faraday Centenary ; also to
Sir Frederick Abel, K.C.B. for his valuable present
of an Qirtling Balance ; and to Mr. Ludwig Mond,
for his donation of £100 towards expenses connected
with the Faraday Centenary commemoration.

Dr. Robert Wiesendanger, of Hamburg, has
just patented a method of employing carbonic acid
to produce intense cold, for the purpose of causing
insensibility, which will prove particularly useful in
dental operations. It is used in the form of a pencil,
and any part of the body on being rubbed with this
pencil loses sensibility, without the freezing of the
skin ; and slight surgical operations can then be

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

i8-

perfomied without causing any pain. Dr. Kriimmel
experimented in the Hamburg Hospital on a boy of
thirteen, who, without the slightest sign of flinching
allowed him to make a long and very deep cut in his
leg, the doctor having rubbed the place with one of
these pencils. The process has the advantage of
great cheapness, for hlty or sixty operations can be
perfomied with it at a cost of from four to eight
shillings.

Mr. a. Stanley Williams, of Sussex, has
discovered three delicate but distinct markings in the
equatorial region of Saturn. The first and third of
these are round, bright spots, somewhat brighter
than the white equatorial zone.in which they occur.
The second is a smaller dark marking on the equa-
torial edge of the shaded belt which forms the
southern boundary of the white zone. Mr. Williams
has obtained abundant proofs of the reality of these
markings, but points out that it requires patience and
practice to see them readily. It is very desirable to
obtain repeated observations of their times of transit
across the planet's central meridian. To facilitate
these observations, jNIr. Williams prepared a table
for June and July, showing the approximate mean
time at which the spots might be expected on Saturn's
central meridian.

Mr. W. Matthews sends us an illustrated paper
of his on " The Determination of Personal Identity,"
by his methods of geometric identification and com-
posite photograpic portraiture, which we recommend
to all of our photographic readers.

We commend a new monthly publication to all
book-lovers, " Bulletin Bibliographique de la Libraire

Francaise."

Mr. Francis P. Pascoe has just privately pub-
lished a neat little brochure entitled " A summary of
the Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species."

We have received Parts 13, 14, and 15 of Mr. R.
L. Wallace's " British Cage Birds," the best book on
the subject out (London : Upcott Gill).

On June 28th, about eighty members of the Essex
Field Club had a delightful botanical walking ex-
cursion from Chelmsford to Maldon. At Danbury,
in the midst of the old camp. Dr. J. E. Taylor,
F.L.S., &.C., gave an open air lecture on "Where
our British Wild Flowers came from."

Dr. Hardwicke, surgeon to the Sheffield Public
Hospital for Skin Diseases, who has studied cancer
for a quarter of a century, believes that he has dis-
covered a cure for this fell disease without the use of
the knife. Professor Moritz recently described a
treatment of cancer before the Society of Physicians
Vienna, and from communications which have

passed between him and Dr. Hardwicke, there seems
to be much in common between the two systems.

Fishing with cormorants was recently carried out
in the neighbourhood of Wethersfield, in Essex,
within forty miles of London. The cormorants
belong to Captain Salvin, a gentleman who has kept
and trained these birds for many years. The two
birds he brought down, by name "Sub-Inspector"
and "The Artful Dodger," have been in his posses-
sion for the last nine or ten years. The fishing in
English streams differs from the Chinese method,'
inasmuch as no boats are used, and the birds are
turned into pools, while the shallows at either end
are guarded by " whippers-in," clad in waders, who
keep the birds under control, and catch them for the
"master" when wanted. In the three days' fishing
the cormorants caught over sixty fish.

Mr. Carus-Wilson writes to the "Chemical
News" to say that he has now succeeded in
producing musical notes from sand that was never
before musical, and is also able to produce similar
results from those mute, or "killed" musical sands
which have been temporarily deprived of their
musical properties. Full details will shortly be
made public. The experiments have been con-
ducted on the principles involved in the theory he
propounded in 18SS to account for the emission of
musical sounds from such sands, and that the results
obtained appear to demonstrate indisputably the
applicability of this theory. Professor Crookes adds
a note, stating he had witnessed Mr. Carus- Wilson's
experiments with musical sands — sands originally
musical, musical sands which had been killed and
then revived, and sands originally mute which had
had the gift of music conferred on them.

We are pleased to draw the attention of students
to Messrs. Dulau's scientific catalogues of second-
hand books. The last is devoted to " Works on
Geology," and runs to 138 pages. It is perhaps the
most exhaustive geological catalogue of pamphlets,
papers, etc., ever issued. Address 37 Soho Sq., W.

M. Elisee Reclus, the well-known French
writer on scientific subjects, has been awarded a
prize of ;^8od by a committee of the French
Academy for his services in popularising science.

The medical officers at the Newcastle Infirmary
have issued the result arrived at after seven months'
treatment of the Koch "remedy" for tuberculosis.
The cases of lupus, it is stated, have been improved ;
but in no instance has the condition been eradicated.
In the cases of incipient tubercular phthisis, the
disease was influenced beneficially for a time, but
subsequently progressed. The joint and glandular
cases were not favourably influenced.

1 84

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

MICROSCOPY.

To Advertisers. — The following is a quotation
from a long letter just receivetl from a new corre-
spondent of SciENCE-Gossir in India : — " It is
useless my saying anything in praise of your paper
beyond that it was the cause of my purchasing two
microscopes, &c., for myself." Verb. sap.

The Journal of the Royal Microscopical
Society for June contains, besides the usual sum-
mary of current researches relating to zoology and
botany (principally invertebrate and cryptogamic),
the following papers: — "New and Foreign Roti-
fera," by Surgeon V. Gunsen (illustrated) ; " A New
Method of Infiltrating Osseous and Dental Tissues,"
by T. Charters White ; and " On Bulls' Eyes for the
Microscope," by C. M. Nelson (illustrated).

Mason's Improved Oxyhydrogen Lantern
AND Table Microscope.— We have much pleasure,
after carefully examining this elaborately got-up,
well finished, and yet marvellously compact instru-
ment, in stating that it is the best and cheapest yet
issued. It affords new scope for lecturing purposes,
— botanical, zoological, or geological — the polari-
scope bringing out the colours of the lithological
slides very clearly and effectively. This in.strument
has been designed to meet a long-felt want, i.e., a
microscope that can be used to demonstrate to a
large audience, or, when not in use that way, easily
converted into an ordinary form of table stand.
This is done by merely slipping it off its lantern
fitting and putting it on to another stand furnished
with joint for placing instrument at any angle, having
flat and concave mirrors, substage fitting tube of the
universal size. One special feature is an improved
form of object-holder ; the springs are easily moved,
and will hold M'ith equal ease a thick zoophyte
trough or the thinnest 3 by i slip ; the objects can
be moved about without the fear of scratching the
labels, &c., an objection so common in the ordinary
spring stages. The object and objective are clearly
in View while focussing ; this is of the utmost im-
portance in photo-micrography, especially with the
higher powers, also when using the camera lucida,
the object is held gently but firmly in position, and
can be readily manipulated. The optical parts have
been specially worked out and give results equalling
instruments costing several times its price. The
various insect parts are beautifully pictured, sharp
and clear to the edges. Living organisms such as
hydra, daphnia, or other forms of pond life, are
beautifully depicted, and can be shown either to a
class or general audience. The instrument can be
fitted to any ordinary lantern with 4-inch condensers.
There are no screws or loose parts, so that the fear
ef losing screws is entirely avoided. All working
parts are compensated for wear.

ZOOLOGY.

The Colouring and Banding in Land and
Fresh-water Shells. — We have received another
paper on this subject from Mr. S. Pace, who was
away from England when Mr. J. J. Williams answered
his criticism. ]Mr. Pace protests against "the free
way " in which his article was altered ; but the editor
can in no instance allow any other than strictly
scientific remarks. Especially will all personal ones
be excised.

New Species of Kangaroo. — The latest dis-
covered marsupial is the curious little burrowing
kangaroo {Notoryctes typJilops), found in the heart of
Australia, on the telegraph line between Adelaide
and Port Darwin. The eyes are mere spots beneath
the skin, so that it probably lives almost entirely in
darkness, and it certainly digs a hole in the sand
with amazing rapidity. It is the most mole-like of
its order.

Hydrobia Jenkinsi, E. A. Smith.— Mr. W.
Crouch has so completely answered Mr. W. H.
Smith's note in the July number of Science-Gossip,
that there is very little left to comment upon. It is,
however, I think, necessary to point out to Mr.
Smith, that supposing his friend was the first dis-
coverer of the species, it would not affect its nomen-
clature, after Mr. E. A. Smith had so thoroughly
established its claim to specific rank, after patient
comparison and research. Mr. Smith's note certainly
conveys the impression that he has but little acquain-
tance with the subject, and he certainly cannot have
read the various articles which have appeared in
Science-Gossip, and other journals, describing the
new species, its first discovery, and habits and
distribution, or he could not surely have overlooked
the statement that I had collected the species some
six years previous to Mr. E. A. Smith's announce-
ment that it was a new species. My first specimens
were obtained from ditches at East Greenwich
marshes, June 19th, 1883 ; a few weeks later they
were fairly abundant in that locality. Two or three
years after I found a few shells only at Plumstead
marshes upon several occasions, but they did not
abound at that time according to my own experience.
Immediately after obtaining specimens in 1883, I
forwarded a number of them to various concholo-
gists, asking them to name them for me. They were
unanimous in pronouncing them to be Hydrobia
similis of Draparnaud. It has of course been con-
clusively proved by Mr. E. A. Smith of the British
Museum, that they differ nearly as much from this
species as from the variety ovata of //. ventrosa.
(See Journal of Conchology, vol. vi. p. 142). It is
to be regretted that the mistake should have occurred,
but no doubt it originated from the scarcity of

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP.

i8s

authentic specimens of H. similis, which even at that
period was fast becoming extinct as a British species,
and it was the result of having to depend only upon
general description, and obscure figures of species
only. I believe Mr. Crouch must be mistaken in his
impression "that further notes appeared in the
Journal of Conchology for 1889, showing that the
form had already been taken at Greenwich two years
before (1887)." To the best of my belief the species
had long since disappeared from the locality. In
looking over my diary I find my last record of their
being taken alive at East Greenwich marshes is
July 4th, 1SS5, and subsequent search has failed to
discover a single specimen in that district. I am of
Mr. Crouch's opinion that the creatures have been
introduced from abroad, and judging from the fact
that they only appear to inhabit a few ditches at
Beckton, and do not occur elsewhere in the Essex
marshes, while they abound upon the south side of
the river, and have been taken in abundance from
ditches, commencing at the arsenal, and extending
away down the river to a point midway between
Darenth Creek and Greenhithe ; I am inclined to
think they were first introduced upon this side of the
river, probably at or near East Greenwich marshes.
I am confirmed in my opinion by the fact that the
species does not appear to have been taken at Beckton
previous to 18S9, whereas it has been proved that
they abounded all over the Plumstead marshes at
that time, and were collected by me nearly six years
before at Greenwich. How, or when, or where they
were first introduced may always remain a mystery,
but surely sooner or later the species will be discovered
abroad. Professor E. von Marten, of Berlin, to
whom in 1890, I sent specimens for the Berlin
Museum, wrote me as follows :— " I thank you very
much for the Hydrobire, which are very interesting
for me ; I know none which may be identical with
it, in any part of the world. Pototnopyrgus antipo-
dium, Gray, from New Zealand, has a similar ridge
below the suture, but this is often spinous, and it
differs in other regards. I shall place most of your
specimens in the Berlin Museum." One variety of
this antipodean species in my collection strongly
resembles H. Jenkiiisi, but is scarcely identical with
it, and the typical shells differ very much indeed.
— H. y. Jenkins, M.C.S., New Cross.

BOTANY.

Albino Flowers.— In reply to Mr, Stewart's
queiy, I am able to state that I have found albino
flowers of Erica tetralix on one or two spots on the
extensive heaths surrounding Aldershot. As it may
be of interest to some of your readers, I here append
a list of the Albino flowers I have at present in my

collection. Trifoliuvi pratense, Epilobiuin hirsiitiim,
Epilobiiim tno7itanui)i, Calhnia vulgaris. Erica
tetralix, Ccntranthus ruber, Centaiirea scabiosa (this
sometimes occurs with white ray florets and purple
disk florets), Scilla nutans, Erythrcea centauriiim.
Salvia vcrbenaca (foreign). Origanum znilgarc. Thymus
se)-pyllitm, Prunella vulgaris, Lamium purpuretim,
Ajuga reptans, Cnicus palitstris. Orchis morio. Orchis
maculata, Campanula rotu7idifoHa, Dianthiis plu-
marius, Geranium pusillum, Fritillaria nieleagris,
Veronica agrestis, Vicia satira, Zi/iaria cymbalaria.
Primula vulgaris. — E. Armitage.

Lemna trisulca, &c. — In June, on a Botanical
ramble I dipped into a small pond, to inspect the
plants growing there. On examining the Lemnse, as
I always do, to my great surprise I found Lemna
trisulca unmistakably in flower. The flowers in
ever}' case existed on fresh young growths, never on
any of older, fully formed leaves. In no other place,
nor in this before, have I ever found these young
growths, and never a single flower ; but now I find
myriads, and have observed them every way, by eye
and under microscope. L. gibba seems to bloom here
every year. — ]V. 0. Wait, Rugby,

Erica Mediterranea in Cornwall. — Referring
to the statement in Mr. Nower's interesting descrip-
tion of a " Ramble near Roundstone," that a spot in
Galway, and one in Mayo, are the only British habitats
of Erica mediterranea, I would take the opportunity
of saying we have a specimen of this plant growing
here in the Kennall Valley. It is a particularly fine
plant, about five feet in diameter, and grows on the
highway from Truro to Falmouth amid a brake of
wood spurge, heather, and periwinkles. Its locale
is closely adjacent to one of the branches of the Fal,
but whether it owes its existence in this valley to the
" rolUng restless waves," or whether it was originally
an inhabitant of one of the neighbouring estates, I
leave an open question. One thing, however, is
certain, that is, the plant has flourished here for
upwards of thirty years. Not far from it its con-
gener. Erica ciliaris, grows in all its glory. — Fred. H.
Davey, Poiisanooth, Perran-ar-zuorthal, Cornivall.

An Abnormal Strawberry. — Perhaps you may
care to insert the following note, if for the sake of the
curious shape, in Science-Gossip. I saw it to-day
amongst some strawberries I purchased. I have
seen double and treble strawberries before, but
never one that seems to be made up of six or seven,
— I think seven, for one division is already decaying,
but looks as if it had been in a way separate, while
the leaves of the calyx at the back are very numerous.
Perhaps, however, some of your correspondents may
be able to tell us of oddities as strange among
strawberries. This one comes from the suburbs of
Bath, I imagine. — F. S. HolUngs.

i86

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

GEOLOGY, &C.

Wells in West Suffolk Boulder-Clay. —
The following important communication was recently
read before the Geological Society by the Rev,
Edwin Hill, M.A., F.G.S. It might be supposed
that in a boulder-clay district water could only be
obtained from above or from below the clay. But
in the writer's neighbourhood the depths of the wells
are extremely different, even within very short
distances ; and since the clay itself is impervious to
water, he concludes that it must include within its
mass pervious beds or seams of some different
material which communicate with the surface. It
would follow that this boulder-clay is not a uniform
or a homogeneous mass. The visible sections are
only those given, at hand by ditches, and at a con-
siderable distance north and south by pits at Bury
St. Edmunds and Sudbury. The appearances in
these harmonize with that conclusion. Conclusion
and appearances differ from what we should expect
on the theory that this boulder-clay was the product
of the attrition between an ice-sheet and its bed.
In the discussion which followed, Professor Prestwich
remarked that intercalated beds of gravel and sand
were common at different levels in the more northern
boulder-clay, and that in parts of the Eastern Counties
a bed of gravel, from one to twenty feet thick,
generally occurred in the centre of the boulder-clay.
These formed small water-bearing beds, but the
' main sources were usually at the base of the clay — a
base which was extremely irregular. He asked the
author how, as the wells stopped at the water-
bearing stratum, he could be sure that this was, in
all instances, intercalated and not an underlying bed.
It was essential to know the level of the ground at
the different wells, and this would no doubt be given
in the paper. The component beds of the boulder-
clay would vary according to the surface passed over
by the ice, and may, therefore, include long trails of
sands and gravels, and are necessarily local and
irregular. He hoped that the author would continue
his observations. Dr. Evans agreed with the author
in regarding the mixed character of the boulder-clay
of Suffolk and some of the features that it presents as
being hardly consistent with its being merely the
result of a coating of land-ice. In illustration of the
permeability of the beds at certain spots, he cited
the deep circular pits or meres in the neighbourhood
of East Wretham, Thetford, which were due to the
dissolution of the underlying chalk by water charged
with carbonic acid having forced its way through the
clay. The level of the water in these meres depends
upon the saturation of the chalk, and the bottom of
what in one year was a deep pool might in another
year be cropped with turnips. Mr. Clement Reid
observed that intercalations of seams of sand were
almost universally characteristic of the boulder-clay,

and helped to render it somewhat pervious to water.
He was unable to follow the author's argument, that
irregularities in the deposits proved that the boulder-
clay could not have been formed under ice. Mr.
Topley called attention to the researches upon the
glacial geology of the Eden Valley carried on by
Mr. Goodchild, who believed (as does Mr. Reid for
Norfolk) that the irregular beds of gravel and sand
occurring in the clay were formed within or under
the ice-sheet, the gravel, &c., having been washed
out of the clay into hollows of the ice during partial
or local melting of the ice-sheet. Mr. Goodchild
said that similar intercalations of sands and gravels
in the boulder-clay were common in the north. He
reminded the society that he had proposed an ex-
planation of the origin of such deposits many years
ago in the society's journal and elsewhere ("Quart.
Journ. Geol. Soc," vol. xxxi., and " Geol. Mag."
for 1874). The president referred to his own early
work in the boulder-clay, and the abundant evidence
which he had everywhere found of intercalated nests
and layers of sand and gravel in that deposit. He
had always been accustomed to regard these inter-
calations and their singular contortions as affording
some of the strongest proofs of glacier action, and
though he admitted that the boulder-clay still pre-
sented many unsolved difficulties, he had never seen
what he could regard as a valid argument against
the view that the true typical boulder-clay is essen-
tially a product of land-ice. The author, in answer
to Professor Prestwich, said that he had taken into
account the variations in surface-level of spots where
wells existed. Dr. Evans's instances of permeability
in boulder-clay were a valuable corroboration. The
appearances of sections did not to himself suggest
an origin such as erosion by subglacial streams. He
would be very glad to study the sections at Saffron
Walden and those in the Eden Valley described by
Mr. Goodchild. He was not aware of any case in
which a "ground-moraine" had been seen in actual
process of formation, but he imagined that any
structures possessed by a mass so formed would be
horizontal in their general direction. The appear-
ances described in the paper were not of that
character.

The Geology of the Tonga Islands.— Mr.
J. J. Lister read a paper on this subject. The islands
of the Tonga group are situated on a long ridge
which rises from deep water on either side to within
a thousand fathoms of the surface of the sea. The
general direction of the ridge is N.N.E. and S.S.W.
(i) A line of volcanoes, some active, some extinct,
traverses the group. Continued southward, the
direction of the line passes through the volcanoes of
the Kermadec group, and those of the Taupo zone of
New Zealand ; while to the north it cuts the line of
tiie Samoan volcanoes at right angles. (2) Besides
the purely volcanic islands there are some formed by

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

187

submarine eruptions, whose la)-ers have been laid
out under water and since elevated, with or without
a covering of limestone. (3) The remaining islands
are formed entirely of limestone. Eua is an example
of the second group. The volcanic basis consists for
the most part of beds laid out beneath the sea, and
some of the upper ones contain pelagic shells. Dykes
of augite and hyperthene-andesite project on the
shore, and a representative of the plutonic series
occurs. There is evidence that the island has been
elevated and again submerged prior to the elevation
which has raised it to the present height. The
volcanic basis is largely invested with limestone, and
this rock forms the summit 1078 feet above sea-level.
Sections show that it is a shallow-water deposit. Of
the purely limestone structures, Tongatabu, Nomuka,
and the long reef on which the larger islands of the
Hapaii group are situated form more or less complete
atolls, all of which have been elevated to a greater or
less extent. The Vavau group is remarkable for its
very indented contour, suggesting the idea that it
rests on a much denuded basis. Both here and at
Eua there are raised limestone formations with atoll
or barrier-like contours ; and there is some direct
evidence to show that these have been formed
without the aid of subsidence. The presence of
islands formed of volcanic materials laid out in layers
beneath the sea, and the manner in which the
recently formed Falcon Island is now being reduced
to the condition of a submarine bank, suggest that
the atolls of the group may rest on similarly formed
foundations. In the discussion which followed, Mr.
Hickson said that Mr. Lister's researches on the
coral reefs of the Friendly Islands were of great
interest and importance, as they supported the view
that atolls and barriers may be formed in regions of
elevation, and that the "subsidence theory" is not
sufficient to account for all the phenomena that occur
in volcanic regions. The Tonga and Kermadec
groups of islands are very similar to the chain of
islands that stretches from the Northern Peninsula of
Celebes to the southern promontory of Mindanao.
Here we find a chain of volcanoes, many of them
active at the present day, represented by the Ruang,
the Siauw, and the Awu, with broad barrier-reefs
and ring-shaped atolls in their immediate vicinity.
The researches of Sluiter in the Java seas prove that
coral islands and reefs are frequently formed on a
substratum of soft clay and mud. Mr. J. W. Gregory
remarked on the great value of Mr. Lister's paper,
and the interest attaching to the discovery of a
plutonic rock on the islands. Taken in conjunction
with the discovery of similar rocks in the Marquesas,
and the presence there of genera otherwise restricted
to South America and Malaysia, it helped to afford
an explanation of some difficult problems of distri-
bution. Manganese nodules seem characteristic of
deep-sea conditions, not only at present, but in
earlier periods; thus in the Maltese Miocenes they

are associated with a fauna of about looo fathoms.
Their occurrence, therefore, proves considerable ele-
vation, and it is not surprising that the coral-lime-
stone occurs as thin crusts ; the Tongas thus afford
only another case of coral formation in shallow or
rising areas, for which, as Darwin has so emphatically
insisted, his theory was not proposed.

The Inverness Earthquakes of November
15TH TO December 14TU, 1890. By Mr. C.
DaviSon, — In this paper the author gives reasons for
supposing that the Inverness earthquakes of last year
were due to the subsidence of a great wedge of rock
included between a main fault and a branch one ;
and he considers that there is little doubt that these
recent earthquakes were the transitory records of
changes that, by almost indefinite repetition in long
past times, have resulted in the great Highland
faults.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Bats Flying in Sunlight. — In the early summer
of the year before last, upon coming out of the
church here at the end of the morning service, I
observed two bats flying about in bright sunshine in
the churchyard, resting now and then on the tiled
roof of the south porch. It was the brightest,
hottest day there had been that year up to that date,
and I conjectured that their behaviour was due to the
circumstance that their roosting-place under the tiles
had become too hot for them. — Johfi Hawell, ALA.,
Iiigleby Grcenhow Vicarage, Northallerton, Yorks.

Snakes and Parasites. — Are snakes troubled
with parasites ? I have never seen any mention of
such being the case. For a considerable time I have
kept several of the common Tropidonotus natrix, and
until this week none of them have cast their skins
this year. I took a skin out of the cage two days
ago, which had just been cast, and was still fresh and
moist. On looking at it, I found several lice of some
sort crawling over the skin, but I brushed them off
at once without thinking, as I wanted to preserve the
skin. Last evening I found, in the space of about an
hour, another f»esh skin, which was also covered
with the lice. I send this skin by Parcel Post just as
I found it, that you may see the apparent parasites.
I should be glad to know what you think they are.
Is there any evidence as to snakes' hearing power?
It always seems to me that they feel the vibration of
a movement, more than actually hearing the noise of
it. I might say that in other years I have never
found any sort of insect on a snake's slough. — H. D.
Tilly.

Marine Phosphorescence, etc. — During the
first week of June was seen, off the south coast of
Devon, one of the most beautiful natural phenomena
it has ever been my privilege to witness. Across
Torbay, beyond Hope's Nose to Babbicombe Bay,
on to Oddicombe and Petit Tor, far as the eye could
reach, the sea was dyed with brilliant crimson, which
in the bright summer sunshine looked as if the water
was turned into arterial blood, reflecting the light
with a weird and wonderful effect. But it was at
night the strange phenomenon revealed its full splen-

i88

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

dour. Then, right and left, far and near, the sea
looked like molten silver, tinged with amber, and
rich with gold. The far-off horizon was one long bar
of glorious light, and as the waves broke upon the
rocks, and the surge dashed upon the white pebbles
of beautiful Babbicombe Bay, showers of phosphores-
cent spray were hurled high into the air, producing a
spectacle grand in the extreme. The phosphorus
which produced this magnificent sight was caused by
the surface of the sea being covered with the spawn
of the common mussel. When the tide was out,
rocks, pebbles and sand were coated with a thin film
of transparent gelatine, which speedily vanished with
the light and heat of the noontide sun. What renders
the phenomena peculiar is that I could find no trace
of mussel-beds in the neighbourhood. The phos-
phorescent effects were greatest on the third night
after the spawn was seen upon the water. In another
forty-eight hours it had completely disappeared. —
Thos. S. King, F.G.S., F.R.M.S.

Tardigrades. — Would any of your readers kindly
inform me of the size of the tardigrade in comparison
with the rotifers, cyclops, and such-like ordinary
microscopical objects, and if they are visible to the
naked eye ? Also in what seasons and locality may
they be looked ioxl—H. J. T.

Optical Effect.— Can you give me the true
explanation of the following optical effect, which I
was shown the other day ? Hold a lighttd candle, in
an otherwise darkened room, three inches below the
eye, and two inches from the face, waving the light
gently backwards and forwards while fixing the eye
steaddy upon the darkest portion of the room. Soon
will be seen a black branched object which has been
popularly likened to the ramifications of the brain. —
//. J. T.

Snail- Water. — Take garden snails cleansed and
bruised six gallons, earth-worms washed and bruised
three gallons, of common wormwood, ground ivy,
and carduus each one pound and a half, penniroyal,
juniper berries, fennel seeds, aniseed, each half a
pound, cloves and cubebs bruised each three ounces,
spirit of wine and spring water of each eight gallons ;
digest them together for the space of twenty-four
hours, and then draw it off in a common alembick.
This is admirably well contrived both for cheapness
and efficiency, and for persons whose circumstances
and manner of living have not habituated them to
any delicacy. It is as good a snail-water as can be
made, used for consumption. — From an old Dispen-
satory of St. Thomas's Hospital, 1746.

White Heather. — In the July number Mr.
Irving informs a correspondent that he had seen this
variety at Wellington. In some of my rambles I
have met with it in England and the Highlands of
Scotland. While staying with a friend at Ilkley
(Yorks.), a few years ago, we walked over Rumbolds
Moor, which lies immediately to the south of Ilkley,
and we came upon two large specimens in full bloom.
I brought a sprig home, thinking it might be un-
common ; but the landlady, with whom my friends
were staying, assured us that there was plenty of it on
the north side of Wharfedale also. Two years ago I
came upon a very large bush in perfect bloom near
.Vberfoyle (Perthshire) — one solitary bush among a
dense mass of the purple variety. The flowers were
so profuse that, looking up the hill face, it looked
like a big white boulder at half-a-mde's distance.
Some years ago, in climbing a two-thousand-feet hill
at Moy, between Inverness and Fort William, I
found several plants of it in rather isolated positions

— not growing beside the purple variety as I have
since found it. In the many " weed-gathering
wanderings " I have had in the south of Scotland, I
have never come upon one bush of white flowers. —
Geo. Murray, Edinburgh.

Tree- Frogs in Winter. — M. A. Y. wishes to
know if any of the readers of SciENCE-GossiP could
tell her the best way of keeping green tree-frogs
during the winter, when they are asleep and do not
require food. Could any one also tell her how
croaking sound is produced ?

Squirrels in Winter. — Some interesting re-
marks on squirrels are made by various writers in
" The Zoologist." It is often said that squirrels are
torpid during winter, but there is no really sound
evidence for this view. Mr. Masefield, writing
from Cheadle, Staffordshire, says ("Nature," March
I2th) : "I have seen squirrels abroad on fine days
in, I think I may say, every one of the winter
months ; and while pheasant shooting near here on
a sunny day (January 6th last), which was about the
middle of the most severe frost we have had for
many years, with several inches of snow on the
ground, I saw a squirrel jumping from tree to tree,
before the beaters, in the most lively condition."
Mr. Blagg, also writing from Cheadle, has "fre-
quently seen squirrels abroad in the middle of the
winter, when there has been deep snow on the
ground and a keen frost in the air. I remember,"
he adds, "once seeing a squirrel abroad during a
severe storm of sleet and rain in winter time, and he
appeared to be not at all inconvenienced by the
rough weather." Mr. Blagg's idea is that the
squirrel probably does sleep a good deal more in
winter time than in summer, as do many other wild
animals, but that he has to be continually waking up
and taking nourishment. The period of reproduction
is unfavourable to the notion of an almost complete
state of torpidity. The editor of "The Zoologist"
records that he has notes of "finding newly-born
squirrels on March 21st (three young), April 9th
(three young), April 26th (four young), and April
29th (two young). Those found at the end of March
and beginning of April were naked and blind ; those
taken at the end of April were about three-parts
grown." According to the editor " the old squirrels,
in case of danger, remove the young from the nest,
or ' drey,' to some hole in a tree, whither they carry
them one by one in the mouth, just as a cat carries
her kitten. One of the prettiest sights in the world
is to see an old squirrel teaching a young one tO'
jump,"

Mr. H. Bettanv, of New Zealand, desires me to
inform those correspondents who sent him parcels of
shells in reply to his notice in these columns, that he
will send return parcels as soon as possible. — /■". IV.
Wotton, Cardiff.

Arion ater. — For the last four years I have been
engaged in working out the life-history oi Arion ater,
with the view of learning whether or not it is self-
fertilizing. I have now proved conclusively that it
is. I purposely refrained from reading any works on
this species during my observations, therefore do not
know whether this fact has been placed on record
before. I shortly intend publishing the whole results
of my experiments and observations. — F. IF. Il'otton,
Cardiff.

Snails as a Cure for Consumption. — I can
fully corroborate Mr. Rundle's testimony to snails
being used by consumptives. Not long since there

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

189

died at this place a young man who in early life fell
a victim to this disease, but who, by careful attention
to personal habits, managed to drag along to his
twenty-second year. During the first two or three
years of his illness the skill of all the loca', and at
least two or three metropolitan practitioners was
called into requisition, but without avail, and even-
tually, on the advice of friends, who boasted of being
competent to give a corporeal as well as an ocular
demonstration of the virtues of the treatment, he
entered heartily on a course of snail eating. The
animals were eaten in moderate quantities twice per
diem — morning and evening — and were collected for
him while the dew yet bathed the herbage. The
creatures consisted chiefly of Helix nemoralis and
horteiisis, and a small, slimy, shelless animal desig-
nated in this neighbourhood "the dew snail."
Gruesome as the treatment may appear to our refined
tastes, for three years it proved in this young man's
case the only antidote to the ravages of consumption.
I have a yet more remarkable case before my eye,
this time that of a middle-aged man who has so far
freed himself from the grip of consumption as to be
able to carry on his business engagements. Several
years since he was totally prostrated by this disease ;
in fact, his case was such as to excite the most
alarming apprehension in his family. A course of
vegetable diet and the snail treatment was prescribed,
and adopted, and to-day, although not the strongest
of men, as a merchant and general business-man he
has no rival in his immediate neighbourhood. I may
say that nearly twenty years have elapsed since he
became free of his enemy. As in taking cod-liver
oil, so in eating snails ; what was at first a repulsive
experiment becomes in time a toothsome pastime.
Those who have undergone the snail-eating treat-
ment, though the disease may have been successfully
removed, and their case necessitates no further use of
the animal, will eat them in quantities and with
apparent relish. Like tomatoes, they seem to im-
prove on acquaintance. I have never before heard
of snails being used as "eye applications," but, as a
remarkable fact, I have long known them to be used,
and with unequivocal success, as poultices for gather-
ings. The snails are pounded into a jelly with a
pestle of some kind, spread on a piece of clean linen,
and applied like any other poultice. — Fred. H. Da-\y,
Po7isanooth.

Froc;s ax Antidote for Bronchitis. — While
the question of rustic recipes for virulent diseases is
on the tapis, I would mention that in this neighbour-
hood the virtues of a young frog in alarming cases of
bronchitis, like Cesar's wife, has long been "above
suspicion." The animal chosen for the occasion is
generally about one inch and a half in length. The
operator seizes the frog by its fore-legs, opens his
own mouth to an alarming gauge, places the slimy
creature in position, and heigh, presto ! it disappears
down his oesophagus ! The philosophy of the treat-
ment was an obscure point to me until a ^^w weeks
since a rustic lifted the veil by explaining that the
frog in its endeavours to free itself from its uncom-
fortable position, "clawed away the phlegm from
the windpipe, and thereby made breathing much
easier." I have friends of unquestionable integrity
who declare they have seen frogs thus eaten alive,
with marvellous results to the health of the operator.
— Fred. H. Davey, Ponsanooth.

Pha'sical Human Measurements.— The com-
mon belief that woman has a proportionally longer
trunk than man is not confirmed by the researches
of the Professors of Hygiene at Amherst College,

United States. Two thousand students of this great
institution have been subjected to scientific measure-
ments, with the result that although the average
male is found to be only just over seven per cent,
taller than the average female, in length of trunk he
exceeds her by eleven per cent. In the length of the
lower limbs there is a difference of nine per cent, in
favour of the male. Where the female really out-
tops the male is in the head and neck.

White Heather. — Last year I procured two
little white pieces of the true heather {E. tetralix) on
a small expanse of moorland in N, Staffordshire. It
may be of interest to readers to know it can be found
in this county." — B. C. Robinson.

Coccus cataphractus. — H. A. asks (Scienxe-
GossiP for July, 1891) where this scale insect is to
be found. Search among bog mosses in June.
Ireland, Scotland, and Cumberland are good locali-
ties.— C. Brooksbank, 5 Longridge Road, Kensington.

The Cost of Fidelity. — "Sweep" is a collie
some three years of age, very affectionate, and a
great favourite. His attachment and fidelity to his
mistress are verj' great. During a prolonged illness
last year he scarcely ever left her room. Neither
food nor water would tempt him, and neither nurse
nor ser\'ant could drive him from a position under-
neath the sick-bed which he had appropriated to
himself. A short time ago the poor brute's fidelity
cost him dear. His mistress was suddenly called
away by train. In the bustle of starting he escaped
from home and found his way to the railway station.
He attempted to enter the railway carriage, but was
prevented and driven some distance off, where he
remained until the train had started. He then came
bounding down the platform, eluded the porters who
tried to stop him, caught the train afier it had left
the platform, and looked up for his mistress. Failing
to find her, he darted under the train, where he was
seen to roll over several times, but eventually escaped
on the opposite side with a smashed tail. The
decision of the veterinary surgeon was that the tail
must be amputated or the dog destroyed. Poor
Sweep had been very proud of his tail, and used to
curl it up over his back. He now has a stump about
two inches long, and he may often be seen looking
round as if anxious to discover what has become of
the missing caudal appendage. — F. T. S., IVorcester.

Abnormal Flowers. — I enclose flowers of the
common Canterbury bell, having all the sepals
coloured like the corolla. The whole of the blooms
on one large plant resemble those enclosed, and I
may note that last year I saw in a friend's garden
several plants of the same campanula, on which the
sepals, also coloured, were joined at the edges, so as
to form second and outer bells. — Francis Brent,
Plymouth.

Dogs of War. — In France, Italy, Germany, and
Austria, as well as in Bosnia and the Herzegovina,
so-called war-dogs have been kept, in order to test
their watchfulness for the benefit of the military
service. According to general report, the plan has
answered excellently with the outposts as well as
with the patrol. But to the German army belongs
the merit of having made use of the dog's sagacity
for humane purposes in time of war, and it is
probable that before long a number of fresh canine
recruits will be permanently attached to the regi-
ments, their office being to search for the wounded.
The Prussian Jiiger battalions have already a number
of such dogs on trial, all of them being thoroughly

IQO

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

trained to seek out wounded soldiers in the field.
The experiments so far have had excellent results.
A number of men hide in a wood or behind hedges,
lying on the ground face downwards and with orders
not to move. As soon as the dogs are let loose they
begin the search. When they find one of these men
they place their fore-paws upon the prostrate body
and begin to bark, an exercise which is continued
till the bearers appear and carry the man off, where-
upon the dog starts afresh. Each company of the
Liibben Jiiger has about twelve of these dogs.
Hunting-dogs cannot be relied upon on account of
their love of the chase, and therefore sheep-dogs or
Pomeranian Spitzhunde are chosen for the work.

Flogging Machines in Russia. — Flogging is so
indispensable in Russia that some inventor has per-
fected a machine which saves the human arm the
infamous labour of blows. Under the flagellation of
the machine taxes and arrears are to become speedily
collectable. " These latest fruits of Russian civiliza-
tion catch the arm and feet, allowing the head to
repose on a kind of Japanese pillow, while that
portion of the body which is to be operated on is
raised to a convenient position for the executioner."

Fatalities in the Crater of Vesuvius. — The
brief period of quiescence in the eruption of Vesuvius
has been followed by renewed activity and an in-
creased discharge of lava. A few days ago, two
Brazilian tourists, accompanied by a guide, ascended
the mountain, and advanced to the mouth of the
crater. They were soon enveloped in smoke, and
when it had cleared away it was seen that one of the
two had fallen into the crater, and that the other was
in danger of doing so when he was rescued by the
guide. It is probable that these gentlemen were
overcome by the noxious fumes of the smoke by
which they were surrounded.

Formation of a Dead Sea in California. — A
geological phenomenon of considerable importance
is stated to have appeared in San Diego County, in
the extreme south of California in the almost sudden
formation of an inland sea. A few weeks ago, a trick-
ling of water was observed to damp the ground
around the Salton Salt Works, and now it has ex-
panded into a lake ten miles square, and from three
feet to eight feet deep. Then at Indian Wells,
sixty miles south of Salton, another new sea, forty
miles square and from three feet to five feet deep,
has been formed. It appears possible that these
bodies of water may unite, and form a lake fifty miles
long and 400 feet deep. Indian runners have been
employed to go round the rising waters, and as they
have failed to find any surface inlet, a boat has been
provisioned for a week, and started to explore and
try to discover the connection with the Colorado
River, whence the water is believed to come,
whether above ground or by a subterranean com-
munication. The so-called Colorado Desert, lying
to the east of the new lake, resembles the bed of a
dead sea. It has an area of 3,000 miles, and lies
270 ft. below the ocean level. Shells and other
marine deposits abound. Engineer^ have often
planned to make this area fertile by irrigation, after
the manner of the Valley of the Nile, which would
add two million acres to the State, but all their
efforts so far have been in vain. The Southern
Pacific Railway crosses the Colorado River at several
places 160 ft. above the ocean. For twelve miles
near Yuma (Arizona City) only a loose water-sodden
ridge nine feet high and a mile wide, separates the
district from the Salton Sink. All the district

appears now to be reverting to the condition de-
scribed in Indian tradition. The stoppage of several
artesian wells conflicts with the theory of a subter-
ranean ocean, having a current running inland. The
very idea of a "Subterranean Ocean" shows how
much such engineers have yet to learn from
geologists.

Wood-pigeons in London. — A great increase
has taken place within the last few years in the
number of wood-pigeons frequenting the London
parks. Formerly a few pairs bred there every year,
Kensington Gardens and the grounds of Buckingham
Palace being their favourite nesting-places ; but a
few years since their numbers began to increase, and
they aienow — sparrows excepted — the commonest of
London birds, and are certainly, without any excep-
tion, the most noticeable. Curiously enough, the
greatest increase has taken place in the most fre-
quented parts of the park. One of the most notice-
able characteristics of the park pigeons is their
excessive tameness, which seems to have grown as
their numbers increased. They walk about uncon-
cernedly within a few feet of the constant stream of
pedestrians ; and, especially in St. James's Park, are
ever on the alert for the food which is often thrown
to them ; indeed, four or five may frequently be seen,
in company with a small army of sparrows, almost at
the feet of some person who is feeding them with
pieces of bread or grain. The increase in the number
of wood-pigeons has added a charm to the parks, as
they are beautiful birds, whether seen on the ground
or on the wing, and, though the London smoke and
grime darkens the brightness of their plumage, it
cannot destroy it. At this time of the year many
young birds are about, which may easily be distin-
guished from their parents by their duller tints and
by the absence of the white ring on the neck from
which the bird obtains one of its names — the ring-
dove.

Flying Machines. — Mr, Maxim's experimental
flying machine is really a steam kite, thirteen feet
long by four feet wide, and propelled through the air
by a light screw making 2,500 revolutions a minute.
When properly inclined and the screw going at a
certain speed the kite moves horizontally through the
atmosphere. With a higher speed it ascends, and
with a lower it descends. The inventor is now
engaged in building a much larger kite for practical
purposes. It will be 110 feet long, by forty feet
wide, and be driven by a screw eighteen feet in
diameter. The power is to be supplied by a petro-
leum condensing engine weighing 1,800 lbs., and
capable of raising 40,000 lbs., of load along with the
kite. The estimated weight of the flying machine
complete with two engineers on board is ii,8oolbs.
Mr. Maxim therefore calculates on being able to
carry ten or twelve tons of freight or passengers
through the air.

Woollen Cloths and Dyes.— A technical
journal describes the practice of the Donegal people
in weaving woollen cloths which possess a grey
colour derived solely from the natural colour of
various grades of wool, being thus independent of
dyes. This cloth stands the weather admirably, and
is not encouraging for the tailor who sees in shoddy
or mungo the means of a livelihood. The manufac-
turing appliances of the region are, however, very
limited, and no large supply of such cloth is possible.
Such market as exists for the production of such
cloth is no doubt welcome to these primitive people.
A similar practice exists on the Isle of Man of

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

191

making use of black wool for home manufactures.
The farmers in the hilly districts use the wool of the
black-faced sheep for stocking";, which are usually
firmer, closer, and warmer than can be procured in
any shop.

Torpedo Improvements. — The torpedoes now
being made at the Austrian port of Fiume run below
water at a rate of thirty-five miles an hour, and
carry a charge of two hundred and forty pounds of
gun-cotton, the explosion of which is so irresistible
that probably no ship could endure it. What is
more, the crinoline of steel rings which has been
successful hitherto in keeping at a distance all
smaller torpedoes yields, it is asserted, at once to the
weight and impact of the large Whitehead imple-
ment.

The Rarest Metals. — Iridium, a very heavy
metal of the platinum group, so named from the
iridescence of some of its solutions, and well known
in connection with its use for the points of gold pens,
may be bought to-day at approximately ^140 per
pound. The present price of platinum, the better-
known tin-white, ductile, but very infusible metal,
is on a par with that of gold, namely, about £^0 per
pound. But generally its value fluctuates between
its more popular brothers, gold and silver. The
rarest metal — and it is so rare that recent discoveries
have thrown doubt on its elemental character — is
didymium, and its present market price, if one may
thus term the quotation of an article that never
appears on the market, is ^900 per pound. The
next costliest metal is barium, an element belonging
to the alkaline earth group ; its value is £tS'^.
Beryllium, or glucinum, a metallic substance found
in the beautiful beryl, is quoted at £(>TS.

Execution by Electricity. — Four criminals
were put to death by electricity in New York a few
days ago. No reporters were present, but it has
transpired that death was instantaneous in each
instance. The only witness who gives an account is
the gaol chaplain, who says : " I was fully convinced
that execution by electricity was a failure, but now
I am equally convinced of the contrary. Every one
of the men went to the chair calmly, and died easily
without pain or contortion, death being instanta-
neous." The apparatus used was the same as that
of last year, with improvements suggested by experi-
ence. There is no further question in New York
about the method being in every way an improve-
ment upon execution by hanging. The tested
voltage of the dynamos used was 3,000, while the
estimated voltage turned into Kemmler's body was
only 750. The medical men present agree in saying
that the executions were completely successful.
Dr. Southwick says that death resulted instantly in
each case, and was painless. There was not a burn
or mark of any kind left on the bodies of the
victims. Dr. Daniels says tliat the execution was
highly successful from a scientific and from a humane
standpoint. Every man is said to have died instantly
and painlessly.

Trout and Viper.— Mr. Clay and Mr. Mead,
two London gentleman, residing at Altnacealgach
Hotel, in Sutherland, while fishing Loch Veyatie in
the same boat, made, in one day, a total basket
of twenty-six trout, aggregating ten pounds. The
heaviest fish weighed a pound and a half, and on
being opened it was found to contain a viper
measuring eighteen inches in length.

Sir George Airy, the "doyen" of British
scientists, has just completed his ninetieth year. Sir
peorge is in excellent health, and takes the keenest
interest in all matters connected with the astrono-
mical and mathematical sciences to which he has
devoted his life, and especially in the Observatory at
Greenwich, over which he presided for nearly half
a century. He tells a story, and repeats a ballad,
as well and lively as if he were half a century
younger.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Ex-changers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others.— We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised Advertisements, for thepurpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken ol our g'ratuitous
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To our Recent Exchangers. — We are willing to be helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

A. V. Bennett.— We received your exchange for insertion
and also your note, but neither contains your address.

F. Tyndall. — Get Stark's " British Mosses," with coloured
plates and descriptions; or Hobkirk's "Synopsis of British
Mosses " (no illustrations, but clearly-defined characters of all
our species of mosses, which are much more instructive and
lasting). You will then hardly require to trouble anybody.
Or, if you can afford it, get Dr. Braithwaite's " Descriptions
of British Mosses " (with plates, &c.) now being issued.

T. B. CovvAP. — Your specimen of malformation in fuchsia is
not uncommon. It is due to the usually scarlet calyx being
transformed into a true green leaf, possessed with a mid-rib,
veins, &c. — a genuine reversion. It may be observed in any
garden just now, especially among the commoner and more
neglected roses. That it is the calyx parts which return to
their ancestral leaf condition before any other floral organs, is
just what we ought to expect on the theory of floral whorls,
suppression of internodes, foliar transformations to floral, &c.

T. M. P.— Vou cannot do better than procure the late P. H.
Gosse's "Marine Zoology" of our coasts, if you want to go
down to the seaside for pleasurable work. It is numerously,
although sketchily illustrated, — enough, however, to help a
student and would-be worker. We have no sympathy, in these
days of abundant manuals, with those embryonic naturalists
who send up the first, simplest, and commonest specimens they
deign to gather to " be named." A million such recruits will
never make one naturalist. They had all best stick to tennis.

B. C. R. — The "Botanical Gazette" is an American journal,
published monthly at Crawfordsville, Indiana.

M. J. Taylor. — The tiger beetle (JOicindela catnpestris). 1

A Beginner. — i. It is not uncommon to find the feet of

Dytiscus in the condition you describe. 2. Perhaps the pond

which contained most duck-weed had most drainage leading

into it.

S. A. B. — The "caterpillars" in the abnormal buds of

Cardamine pratensis appear to be a form of red planarian,

entirely new to us.

H. G. W. B. — It is exceedingly difficult to give you any
account of where to find books, &c., relating to the entomology
of Sierra Leone. You had best get Dalton's "Art of Travel,"
and the vols, relating to tropical butterflies and beetles in
Jardine's "Naturalists' Library."

192

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Miss C— Address Mr. Charles Bailey, F.L.S., Ashfield,
College Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, re "Botanical
Record Club."

A. BoDiNGTON. — Your paper is duly to hand, and (although
lengthy) shall appear in due course.

H. D. G. — Mr. Harcourt Bath's little book on British
dragonflies does not possess coloured plates. It is a very cheap
and good book, although the woodcut illustrations are not of
the best kind.

A. V. Bennhtto. — Your offer of exchange is inserted just as
it came ; but, as you will see, there is no address. Pkase
send it to the Editor.

R. R. T.— Get Gosse's "Marine Zoology," in two vols.;
also Landsborough's " British Zoophytes" (coloured plates).

T. W. X.— Spencer Thomson's "Walks and Wild Flowers"
is an excellent and exciting book of its kind, leading many to
botanical studies of a more serious character.

Jamfs p. Dixon (Northampton).— Mr. Beeby Thompson
has published an excellent and important geological work on
the geology of your neighbourhood.

EXCHANGES.

Net, setting-boards, collecting and store box, books, &c.
What offers in useful exchange ?—W. I. Weston, Beckley,
Sussex.

Helix lamellata, Piipa ringens, and numerous other species
offered for varieties of British land and freshwater shells.
Also wanted. Continental and foreign land and freshwater
shells.— Rev. John Hawell, Ingleby Greenhow Vicarage,
Northallerton.

Wanted, eggs of raven, heron, puffin, teal, sea-mew, land-
rail, golden plover, in exchange for British shells and seaweeds,
or eggs of lesser black-backed gu'l, moorhen, pheasant,
partridge, jackdaw, carrion crow, kestrel, hawk, and others. —
A. V. Bennetto.

New micro-spectroscope, by Browning, 7/. Also dissolving
apparatus of best construction, including oxy-hydrogen micro-
scope, 25/., including slides, &c. Particulars to intending
purchasers. .Address- Capt. S., Godstone, Surrey.

The following starfish with several crustaceans, also land,
fresh-water, and marine shells [Pahnipes jiiembranaceus, As-
tronyx Loveni, Cribella rosea, Cribella oculata, Solaster
papposa, Goniaster eq7iestris ; ditto, with 6 rays, &c. &c.), in
good condition, ready for cabinet, in exchange for small insect
cabinet duplicate cases, good works on British insects, or what
offers? Send lists to W. D. Rae, 9, Claremont Terrace,
Alpha Road, Milwall, London, E.

Anne Pratt's "Flowering Plants, Grasses, and Ferns of Great
Britain," 6 vols., published by Warne & Co., what offers? —
Linden, New Brompton, Kent.

Wanted, Science-Gossif, from commencement to i88g
inclusive. — E. Pratt, Worthendene, Streatham Common, S.W.
Wanted, an entomological cabinet with six to ten drawers.
— W. F. K., 33, London Road, Maldon.

What offers for 60 micro slides, also for an electrical plate
machine, 12 in., complete, with fittings ? Wanted, good rnam-
malian remains from any formation.— Geo. E. East, jun.,
241, Evering Road, Upper Clapton, N.E.

Offered, shells, corals, polyzoa, serpula, sponges, banded
flint, wood, geodes, chalcedony, spicuhs, rotalia, lituola, and
other micro objects from the chalk, in exchange for minerals,
recent corals, &c.— W. Gamble, 2, West Street, New Brompton,
Kent.

Wanted, the vols, for 1869 and 1870 of the "Quarterly
Journal of Microscopical Science," and any other odd volumes.
Will give a collection of 300 or more British mosses in ex-
change.—J. Cash, Hereford Street, Sale, Manchester.

A NUMBER of botanical and histological micro-slides in
exchange for others on zoology, or cash. — Apply to R. J. S.
Wood, Seaview, Rosscarbery, co. Cork, Ireland.

Offered, Xylophaga dorsalis. Wanted, T. cranium,
Argiope (all). Lepton (all), Cardiuin papillosum, Asiarie
tompressa, Psam. costnlata, Donax politus, Nesera (all),
Vemis casina, V. striatula, Aclis (all), Eulimella (all), Stylifer,
Adeorbis, Torellia, Triton, Columbella, Marginella, Uvula,
Accra astyris. Bulla, Aplysia, Pleurobranchus.— J. Smith,
Monkreddmg, Kilwinning.

Lantern slides, illustr-iting geology, microscopy, &c.,
wanted for nicely-finished micro slides of whole insects, &c. —
J. W. Neville, Wellington Road, Handsworth, Birmingham.

The undersigned would be glad to communicate with any-
one who has done some work among Desmids. — C. O. Sonntag,
38, Maxwell Road, PoUokshields, Glasgow.

Wanted, exchange for rough materials, insects, snakes,
^c, of Burmah, for books on microscopy. Beck's tutn-table

(or Aylward's), writing diamond, histological or other mounted
slides, also a dissecting microscope with instruments ; a fair
exchange given if in good serviceable order. I shall be very
happy to communicate with subscribers of Science-Gossip to
exchange ideas or material.— W. F. Crews, co. F. F. & Co.,
Rangoon.

Wanted, rare British birds' eggs, side-blown. Will give in
exchange a very nice aquarium, "The Entomologist," from
1883 to 1850, the " Field Club" for 1890, also British butterflies
and moths, and several good breeding-cages for same. — T.
Mottershan, 11 Manchester Street, Nottingham.

Polished geological specimens, rare British shells, rock
specimens, thin sections of corals and sponges ready for
mounting, recent objects. Wanted, Isocardia cor, and well-
mounted slides of rock and diatomacaea. — T. E. Sc'ater, Bank
Street, Teignmouth.

Will exchange five hundred different monograms for eggs
of sea birds. ^Fred. Soydell, 19 Chaucer Road, Acton, W.

Would any one having any duplicate natural history speci-
mens or curiosities to spare, towards the formation of a small
school museum, kindly communicate with J. A. Ellis, i Pomona
Place, Fulham, S.W.?

Aclis iinica, Eulima hilineata, Euliina polita, Eiditna
distoria, Pleurobranchus memhranacea, Scalaria clathratula,
Cyclostreina serpuloidcs, Cyclosirema Cuilerianum, Odo-
stoinia interstincta, Venerapis iris. Spiralis reiroversus,
Odostomia spiralis, Odostomia nivosa, Adeorbis subcarinatus,
Rissoa Zetlandica, Rissoa calaihits, Rissoa fulgida, Torna-
iella/asciata. Mytilus edulis, var. pilliJa, Skenea plavorbis.
What offers?— A. J. R. Sclater, M.C.S., 23 Bank Street,
Teignmouth.

Wanted, books on literary history, or biographies, in ex-
change for Dana's "Text-Book of Mineralogy," and Strick-
land's "Memoirs and Scientific Writings," by Jardine.— R.
McCully, 53 Ling Street, Kensington, Liverpool.

Wanted, good mineral specimens ; volcanic rocks, Cambrian
and Silurian fos^ils given in exchange. — W. H. Banks, Ridge-
bourne, Kington, Herefordshire.

Larv.e of lepidoptera wanted, all kinds, for purposes of
examination. — J. K. Homer, Townshend House, Sedgley,
Dudley.

Wanted, "The Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science"
for October, 1S86; also fresh or spirit specimen of Coronella
lirvis. — R. McKenzie Skinner, The Hollies, Shornden, St.
Leonards-on-Sea.

Wanted, a few specimens of Helix pisana, lapicida, ob-
voluta, any Vertigo, Clausilia biplicaia, Rolphii, Acme linenta,
Ccecilianella acicula, Cary. minimum, and any vars. of same ;
offered in exchange, "The Conchologist " for 1891. — W. E.
CoUinge, loS Woodsley Road, Leeds.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE,

"Handbook of the London Geological Field Class" (London:
George Philip & Son). — " Our Country Flowers," by W. J.
Gordon (London: Day & Son). — "Among the Butterflies," by
E. G. Johns (London: Isbister & Co). — "Outlines of Field
Geology," by Archibald Geikie, 4th edition (London : Mac-
millan & Co). — "A Summary of the Darwinian Theory of the
Origin of Species," by F. P. Pascoe (London: Taylor &
Francis). — "Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society,"
June. — "Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club," July. —
"The Human Epic," by J. F. Rowbotham (London: Kegan
Paul). — "British Cage Birds," Parts 13, 14. and 15 (London:
Upcott Gill). — "Annual Report North Staffordshire Field
Club." — " President's Address to the Royal Society of New
South Wales."—" The Microscope."—" The American Monthly
Micro. Journal." — " American Naturalist." — " Canadian Ento-
mologist."—" The Naturalist."— The Botanical Gazette."—
" The Gentleman's Magazine."—" The Midland Naturalist."—
"The Kssex Naturalist." — "The Garner." — " Feuille des
Jeunes Naturalistes." — "Journal of Microscopy," &c., &c.

Communications received up to the 32th ult. fkom:
J. S.— A. M.— R. C. C— I. C. S.— M. E. P.— W. T. L.-
H. G. W. A.-H. R.— J. E. L.— H. J. T.-F. P. P.— H. D. T.
— C. O. S.— J. H. G.— D. B.— T. S. K.— W. O. W.-A. M.—
W. M.— H. R.— J. T.— C. B.— E. A.— J. W. N.— H. D.—
F. F. S.— W. P.— W. D. R.— B. C. R.— J. S.— F. H. D.—

F. B.— R. J. S. W.— F. W. W.— J. C— E. M.— E. P.—
W. F. K.— G. E. E.— W. G.— R. E. S.— G. S. S.— M. A. Y.—
J. K. H.-F. J. P.— T. E. S.— A. T. R. S.-W. F. C—

G. E. C.-R. Mc C.-W. H. B.— A. J. J.-G. M.-J. A. E.—
A. L.— W. W.— Dr. A. J. H. C— E. B— F. B.— J. M.—
H. G. W. A.— F. S. H.— Rev. H. F.— G. D.— F. T.— A. H. S.
—h. L.-R. McK. S.-R. C. C— W. E. C, &c., &c.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

^93

NEW WORLD NATURE-LOVERS.

By the Rev. HILDERIC FRIEND, F.L.S., Author of " Flowers and Flower-Lore," &c.

lO age or clime but
has owned its
spirits whose chief
delight has been to
coquet with fitful
Nature, as the flirt
dances attendance
on the coy and
blushing maid.
With some, this
love - making has
been a mere pass-
ing whim, and
when some more
attractive object
has flashed upon
their vision, they
have left their first
or last plaything,
as a child does its
toys which pleased
it yesterday, for a newer — albeit not always a
worthier thing. Not so, however, with all. As the
worthy knights of yore, who had been fascinated by
the beautiful form of some Beatrice or Isabelle, were
prepared to plunge into the arena where infuriated
beasts were goaded to madness, that they might
recover her fallen glove and thus prove themselves
worthy of her hand, so have some of Nature's
truest knights wooed her amid dangers, endured her
frown, remained faithful when her purposes were
least intelligible, and pressed her for the affirmative
response, when it seemed as though her favours were
to be for ever withheld.

While the almond-eyed daughters of China pluck
the jasmine and fairy-flower merely to adorn the
hair or add a grateful perfume to their person and
apartments, the poet Leen is away among the rice-
fields and bamboo groves listening to the song of the
cicada and the call of the frog, weaving their
discordant yet ever tunefully accordant syllables into
No. 321. — September 1891.

intelligible sounds, and making the bird and reptile
alike to speak in human strains. He praises the gold
of narcissus, and the purple of cockscomb or peony ;
descants on the softness of the evening breeze as it
moans in the cypress and pine ; or goes into raptures
as he recounts the wonders to be seen from the river-
boat as it follows the tortuous course through defile
and valley, through the haunts of the wild fowl, and
the thick-peopled abodes of his brethren. China has
her nature-lovers. Nor is this less true of the fair
islands of the South, where man and maid alike are
ready to sing the praises of orchid-epiphytes and
weeping iron-wood, stringing together the while
garlands of choice blossoms, producing sweet per-
fumes from the Makita, Bua, or Leba, and weaving
their scanty garments from the paper mulberry or
bright feathers of the Kula bird.

Who shall attempt to describe with what delight
the Persian drink in the fragrance of the rose to the
song of his native nightingale, and becomes an
impromptu native poet under their combined
influences ? Or who will adequately picture the
delight of the untutored, yet full-souled representative,
of Asia's many tribes, when, as he sits by the Meinam
and watches the glittering fireflies, or basks in the
delights of Himalayan forest, and Burman plain, he
surrenders himself to luxurious idleness, and sways
his whole being to music of his own begetting ?

These may not be recognized as members of the
fraternity by your jargon-loving scientist : the natu-
ralist who believes in having every beetle and bug
named, and cabinetted in apple-pie order, knows them
not ; yet they are true nature-lovers, and are more in
touch with the masses of their kith and kin, than all
your world-enlightening doctors of science and pro-
fessors of biology. These latter, worthy souls, who
have created a scientific slang for their sole behoof —
failing to understand which you must for ever remain
outside the pale of the erudite and orthodox school —
cannot believe it possible for nature's secret to be
unlocked, save by their patent key, and utterly refuse

K

194

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

to recognize the value of anything which is reported
of the coy maiden, unless it be put in language which
is good to swear by, and can have no duplicate inter-
pretation.

They have forgotten the father that bare them and
look not to the hole of the rock whence they were
digged. The divine Aristotle and learned Theo-
phrastus, because they presumed to speak of the rose
and the lily in one breath, or divided plants into
natural groups according to their size and life-
duration, are cast off and treated with scorn, or
"damned with faint praise." Who does not know
(they ask) that the lily belongs to the monocotyledons,
and the rose to the dicotyledons, while the perianth
segments are petaloid in the one case, and in the
other the flower is gamosepalous and polyandrous?
How edifying such knowledge as this must be to the
rustic youth ! How much sweeter such harmonious
sounds to the gentle maiden than the fragrance of the
flower or the perfume of the attar !

Without for a moment wishing to depreciate the
services which a technical terminology is calculated
to render to science, who does not feel that we have
too long been enslaved thereby ? Some years ago I
took a friend into the fields, and told him the names
of the meadow florets, and the woodland earth-stars.
I recalled some of the traditions relating to the wind-
flower and primrose, told of the fairy favours which
Shakespeare found in the cowslip, and the beauty
the poets .had seen in the daisy ; and innocently
looked into his face for some indication of pleasure.
'He was one of your orthodox schoolmen, who knew
a daisy only as "one of the corymbiferous composite
with conical receptacle and obtuse phyllaiies." What
was his amazement to find that I knew nothing of
these beautiful terms, and had even presumed to study
nature without first studying the scientific classifica-
tion ! Had I told him that I had learned to read
Greek without committing the alphabet to memory,
or had picked my way through Horace without having
learned the whole of the irregular verbs, he would
probably have thought the one equally improbable
•with the other ; or if he had credited me with being
truthful and honest, he would in all probability have
pitied me for taking such an unauthorised course to
, acquire knowledge.

It is too much to say of the orthodox method of

studying nature in the past— A^;« avoiis change tout

.cda — as Molierc puts its; but it may with truth be

.asserted that the new-world nature-lover is doing a

great deal to bring the change about.

Is it necessary for me to make the assertion that
there may be nature-lovers who are not naturalists,
just as there may be theologians who are not doctors
of divinity, or flirts who are not real lovers ? Do I
need to affirm that the poet may know just as much
about a celandine, and admire its golden chalice
quite as largely as the botanist, though the one knows
it only as the earliest of spring flowers, while the |

other can recognize it by petal or stamen, carpel or
nectary, as one of the thalamifloral angiosperms,
belonging to the order Ranunculacea; and the class
Dicotyledones ?

One might have almost believed, and we could
all have devoutly wished, that such books as "The
History of Selborne," and "The Journal of a Natu-
ralist," whose popularity has been great, would have
led our scientific observers to adopt a similar style
when presenting their discoveries and observations to
the world. We are, however, proverbially slow in
learning to adapt ourselves to the needs of the times.
The man of science has a righteous abhorrence of
pandering to popular taste. He prefers that his
profound discoveries should be a secret to all, save to
those who can plod through his cumbersome Latin —
unknown of Livy and Catullus, rather than that they
should be told forth in the vulgar tongue, and thus
made cheap and common.

It is with no wish to ignore our new school of
nature-lovers and their works that I refer to one or
two American authors in the first place as types of the
New World writers. My title is purposely selected
to refer both to the geographical and the chronological.
Where shall one begin. " Whittier," one has said,
" using a humble vocabulary, exercises his gentle,
though uneducated genius in finding natural beauties
amid the hedgerows." Does not the same apply to
many another writer from across the big pond ? Did
Walt Whitman ever attempt to i^ronounce the shib-
boleth of the honoured Asa Gray or Louis Agassiz ?
Yet who, wishing to be put at once into touch with
nature, would not rather take a copy of Whitman's
" Specimen Days in America," into his pocket, than
carry with him " The Popular Flora " of Gray, not-
withstanding all the illustrations contained in the
latter ?

Such a passage as the following translates us in a
trice from busy mart and crowded street to the open
glade and cheerful mead. " A while since the croak-
ing of the pond-frogs, and the first white of the dog-
wood blossoms. Now the golden dandelions in '
endless profusion, spotting the ground everywhere.
The white cherry and pear, blowing the wild violets
with their blue eyes looking up and saluting my feet,
as I saunter the wood-edge — the rosy blush of budding
apple-trees — the light clear emerald hue of the wheat-
fields, the darker green of the rye, a warm elasticity
pervading the air — -the cedar-bushes profusely decked
with their little brown apples, the summer fully
awakening, the convocation of blackbirds, garrulous
flocks of them, gathering on some tree, and makmg
the hour and place noisy as I sit near."

How like old Gilbert White in many respects is the
annexed reference to the welcome spring emigrant.
"Crossing the Delaware, I noticed unusual numbers
of swallows in flight, circling, darting, graceful
beyond description, close to the water. Thick,
around the bows of the ferry-boat as she lay tied in

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

195

her slip, they flew ; and as we went out I watched
beyond the pier-heads, and across the broad stream,
their swift-winding loop-ribands of motion, down
close to it, cutting and intersecting. Though I had
seen swallows all my life, it seemed as though I never
before realised their peculiar beauty and character in
the landscape. Some time ago, for an hour, in a huge
old country barn, watching the birds flying, I recalled
the twenty-second Book of the Odyssey, where Ulysses
slays the suitors, bringing them to cclaircissemcnt ;
and Minerva, swallow-bodied, darts up through the
spaces of the hall, sits high on a beam, looks com-
placently on the show of slaughter, and feels in her
element, exulting, joyous."

Who would not be thankful for the giftie that
should confer the power to see things thus ? Who
will not love the swift-flying birds the more when he
has noticed the rhythmic motion lof its wings and
body, or watched it forming its graceful loop-ribands
over the water ?

Turn from Whitman to Thoreau. Do not carry
with you the prejudice which the critic and reviewer
have together within your minds by their unapprecia-
tive allusions, but open Walden and turn over the
pages till your come to the Pond. " It is like molten
glass, cooled but not congealed, and the few notes
in it are pure and beautiful, like the imperfections in
glass. From a hill-top you can see a fish leap in
almost any part ; for not a pickerel and shiner picks
an insect from this smooth surface, but it manifestly
disturbes the equilibrium of the whole lake. It is
wonderful with what elaborateness this simple fact
is advertised — this piscine murder will out — and
from my distant perch I distinguish the circling
undulations when they are half-a-dozen rods in
diameter. You can even detect a water-bug (Gyrinus)
ceaselessly progressing over the smooth surface a
quarter of a mile off" ; for they furrow the water
slightly and make a conspicuous ripple bounded by
two diverging lines, but the skaters glide over it with-
out rippling it perceptibly .... How peaceful the
phenomena of the lake ! "

After all what is science for, if it be not to bring
man and nature to embrace each other rapturously,
lovingly, responsively ? And how can this be accom-
plished so long as we have only one language, and
that the most repugnant and repulsive to popular
taste, the language of text-books — with which to put
the one on terms of familiarity with the other ? Our
poets can do, and have done a great deal. Long-
fellow's " forest primeval," Tennyson's wild flowers,
Wordsworth's nature worship, have touched more
hearts with a love for the beautiful and sublime than
all your Manuals of Botany, Popular Histories of
Science, and other well-meaning, but utterly unpalat-
able rechauff'es of natural history.

Are we not after all getting back again to the days
of Pliny, of Theophrastus, and of Dioscorides ? What
a delightful rusticity there is about the former writer

as he mixes rape, parsnip, and squills, with mush-
rooms, madder, and cucumber all in one book,
fringing his curiously wrought tapestry with marvellous
facts relating to flax, and closing with instructions on
the art of watering a garden ! Your man of science
scorns all such sublunary things as these latter, and
for the former, he would have you put an impassable
gulf between the crucifers and umbelifers, the
cryptogams and phanerogams, the acotyledons and
dicotyledons — not to mention others.

It is pleasant to know that in our own land the
new-world idea is progressing. I should not like to
appear invidious, but cannot forbear to remark that
if America has her Burroughs, and Thoreau, as well
as her Dawson and Gray (dead, yet speaking), we
have our Hulme and Knight, Taylor and Worsely-
Denison, as m'cU as our Owen and Huxley. The
one class honourably represent our naturalists, the
other our nature-lovers, and while we look to the
former for discoveries, systems, skeletons, we must give
a warm welcome to the latter as they come forth into
the open air, divested of all professional dignity, and
begin to clothe the bare skeleton — "Can these dry
bones live ? " — with flesh and beauteous form. Every
year is bringing the public into closer sympathy with
nature, and when once the eye is opened to see, and
the ear to understand the picture and the rhythm, but
not till then, we may hope to find among the folk, a
due appreciation of science and her exponents.

ON THE BURROWING HABITS OF THE
GENUS TESTACELLA, Cuvier.

By C. D. HoRSMAN, B.A.

HAVING been much interested in the observa-
tions of Messrs. L. E. Adams, W. E.
CoUinge, F. Rhodes, and B. Tomlin, which have
lately appeared in the Science-Gossip and "Natu-
ralist," I venture to forward some observations of my
own on the above genus, which differ slightly from
those of the above-named writers.

In speaking of T. haliotidea, Mr. Collinge says he
has found it at a depth of from four to five feet, and
mentions that Mr. Quilter found T. scutulum at a
depth of eighteen inches. Dr. Jeffrey's mention of
T. matigeinoi being from personal observation is open
to question. Mr. Tomlin says he has found this
last-named species from six to twelve inches below
the surface.

I have carefully observed these three species, but
have no record of ever having found any of them
below twelve inches, and in the majority of cases
only five or six inches below the surface. I have never
noticed any "clean cut hole," as mentioned by
Mr. Tomlin ; all I have observed have generally
commenced to burrow by burying themselves in the
loose surface soil. I should like to know if they have
ever been observed to use the burrows of earthworms,

K 2

196

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

as if so, they may be able to reach a great depth, but
this can hardly be termed burrowing as we understand
the word in regard to the moUusca. It will be as
well, perhaps, to mention that my experiments were
carried out on a fairly heavy soil. In future
observations it would be useful to state whether the
soil is clayey, sandy, compact, or loose. — 77^1? Con-
chologist.

ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS.
No. 4 — Continued.

THE following notes and figures were unavoid-
ably left out of Mr. Lord's last communication
on this subject : —

Fig. 170. A common brown form, front and side
views of A. vulgaris.

Fig. 171. A colourless variety, with a cancellated
shell, approaching A. dentata.

Fig. 172. A beautiful variety of A. vulgaris, in
which the summit and sides of the shell are depressed

Fig. 172. — Arcella vulgaris.

Fig. 173.

Fig. 174. — Arcella.

into a number of shallow concavities. Colour, light
brown. Pseudopodia extended. Uncommon.

Fig. 173. An irregular or deformed specimen,
dark brown.

Fig. 174. Large specimen, fij of an inch in
diameter, with extended pseudopodia and numerous

cont. vesicles. Colour, pale straw-yellow. From a

shaded well.

My next contribution will be on the beautiful

genus Nebela, and will be illustrated by numerous

drawings of the chief varieties.

J. E. Lord.
Rawtejisiall,

THE STANDING STONES AND DOLMENS
OF CARNAC.

By A. H. SwiNTON.

WHO would pass the sounding surge of Scylla
and Charybdis unmindful of the songs of
the Syrens ? who would scorn the blandishments and
rose-crowns that invite the wayfarer to the iron-
bound coasts of Brittany ? for there lies the Amorique
point and portals of the Joyeuse Gard and the
headlands and islands where the dwarf palm, orange,
and camellia perfume the sunless northern skies.
Over Bayeux, Mans, Font Evraud, and queenly
Chinon, the vagrant raven has cast a sepulchral
shade ; but Castle Gaillard it has a merry note, the
crickets creek it, the birds can chirp it, and the frogs
will reply with a bagpipe drone, " Ha te zou
Gaillard ! "

Well, the bakers' strike is on, a number of the
"iLanterne" and " Intransigeant " lies at my bedside,
and a dream of mystery and terror starts up before
me. Suddenly a rattling explosion shakes the hotel
and I rush into the passage. What has occurred and
who are the victims ? A heavy smoke rolls up the
staircase and there is a villainous taint of powder. I
look out of the window over the probable scene of
the accident and notice the Breton servant who is
cleaning fish at the tap. Surprised at such sagacious
conduct, I eagerly inquire what has happened, and I
am given to believe that the landlord is endeavouring
to remove a stone in his cyder-cellar. Presently I
notice that the ceiling of my room is peppered over
with little moths that hold their heads erect, and
that a minute beetle that has drilled the wine-corks
is disporting on the muslin curtains in the sun.
After the smoke came up the locusts. I sally forth
grateful that these are not clothes-moths, and walk
down an elm avenue where the leaves hang like lace,
and their edges are fringed with brown blisters. I
pass onwards between hedgerows of pollard oaks and
they are fluttering with the green tortrix ; I pause
beside a brown pool where the amorous dragon-flies
who have knit the knot, shimmer like blue and
carmine floss. It is the height of summer : come, let
us stray through the meadows and visit the menhirs
and dolmens of our ancestors that lie thick strewn
around the Gulf of Morbihan ; for see, the meadow
brown butterflies have found a delight in the high
and leafy hedgerows, and their hind-wings as they
flit show the ermine border as though they had
bleached them in the blinding dust.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

197

Pause a moment now in this narrow lane and
observe this pale small tortoise-shell butterfly, whose
two wing-spots are barely perceptible, for it drinks
deep on the purple thistle. Here though comes the
herd-girl driving a couple of bulls with the most
fearful horns, short, polished, and as sharp as
needles. Now they are past, and we breathe as a
childish voice exclaims, "They are not naughty,"
but from such terrible kine may the Lord deliver us.
A rustic bridge conducts us onward to a grove of
maritime pines, in whose cool shadow there is a sound
of humming, we look up but no resin-bespattered
insects swarm around their plumy tops. Is it the
carol of a wood-nymph or the reolian breathing of
the summer? for nothing is here vocal save the
long-horned beetles that repose on the bark in the
foppery of slothfulness. Stay a moment, for from
beneath this glow of bloom whence a canary-
breasted bird has this moment flown, there crawls a

leaping a hedge and ditch alight like the gods of old,
directly opposite a tavern where a mistletoe bough is
hung out. The hostess greets us but strangely,
You are not of this country ; and as we sip the
cognac and revivifying water a revery arises.

The traveller who crosses Brittany from north to
south, passes by a bloom of orchards diversified with
swamps and river-courses where the emerald shade of
the oak finds a foil in graceful groups and lines of the
white poplar ; the ear instinctively catches the sound
of "guy" entering into the names of certain of the
villages, and he commences to notice that these pearl-
bearing bunches that spring luxuriantly on the gnarly
apples and smooth poplars are rarely noticed bearding
the oaks, walnuts, or ashes ; not indeed because the
birds fail to place their germs there, but because
they do not strike root. Now the Romans must
surely have seen these tresses of the wood-nymphs
hanging, as we do now, but it would seem probable

Fig. 175. — X, route to the principal monuments at Carnac ; vr, road from Vannes ; G, Gavrinis ; L, Locmariaquer ; ra, river of
Auray ; RC, river of Crach ; K, stones of Kermario ; M, stones of Menac ; AV, road to Auray ; s, Mont-Saint-Michel;
H, Miln's Museum ; c, village of Carnac ; p, village of Plouharnel ; t, tavern ; vr, railway to Auray and Vannes.

little dapper longicorn, whose antennae are short and
bead-like. All such have superior wits, and see how
in response to the insulting straw of purple toad-flax,
he opens wide his jaws and sounds his musical-box
with a nid-nod of the head, just to tell us he is the
chocolate-coloured Glycerhiza ^-litieatum.

But farewell to the restoring shadows, for we are
now on the glaring high road, only differing from
those on the banks of the Loire in being less sugary
and more mustard coloured ; could we dance in ring
to the sound of the poet's flute and tread it with the
bagpipes going on before, we might require our
seven-leagued boots, for we have far to journey. At
length a considerate haymaker suggests a short cut
across the meadows, and propounds a problem as to
how we must make for a larger village and keep a
smaller one on the left, but dazed with the silken
sheen of poppies and cockles alternating with blue-
bottles and marigolds, we miss the stone steps and

that arriving in the frosty season, when the white-
robed Druid, mounted on the naked boughs with his
golden sickle, that they mistook the poplar groves
self-planted beside the pools of Chartres, or on the
green sod of Anglesea for the tall and lank oaks of
Italy.

But we must now really leave this elegant reposi-
tory of cyder, cognac, beer and drinks innumerable,
so much in advance of our drowsy public-houses, and
so we anxiously inquire the way to the Gavrinis.
The hostess, however, talks but little French, and she
directs us to the next village, where we inquire again
and are conducted to the baker. He has indeed
heard of the Gaberine, but it is not near, and thus
cheered we walk on so far that we do not know
where we have got to ; however, the spire of the
village of Baden looms bluely in the distance, and
here we at length arrive weary and a-hungered, and
on entering a tavern a dish of the Vaxus cardilia (?)

198

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G O SSIP.

is set before us. The dainty resembles a cockle,
but is indeed very distinct, and an awkward pause
hereupon ensues, when the village beauty with
thickly-pencilled eye-lashes, dark eyes and ancestral
cheek-bones comes forward, and wiping a knife on
her apron she watches them hiss and splutter and
protrude their syphons in delightful anticipation.
The next moment she is bolting them like a cod-
fish, and exclaiming, "Just as if they are not
good."

The concluding portion of our walk lies through a
pine clearing, along whose ferny borders the scarce
swallow-tail butterfly is poising and floating, but it
is yet a good league to the point, and the tide is
quickly mounting and severing the Goat's Island
from the mainland, so that we shall Lave recourse to
the boat. The ferryman when we arrive is cooling
himself on the floor of his cottage and drinking milk,
and as we walk down to the quay he tells us that
owing to our ignorance of the short cuts we have
walked too far. He then takes us out in his flat-
bottomed punt to his wherry ; a light zephyr sits in
the flapping sail, and as we glide over the cerulean
water the big tumulus behind the white cottages
insensibly draws near. An avenue of wind-swept
elms, some twelve feet high, leads up from the shore,
which nevertheless he tells us has been planted these
fifty years, for the dreamy shade of the elm does not
increase like that of the aromatic conifer, and trans-
form the scenes of our infancy : let us here find
reason to pause and observe this minute ground-
beetle, Aristtcs capita, that carries its prodigious head
like a hippopotamus, its eyes too, seem placed at a
disadvantage, and it is a puzzle to know what use it
makes of its brains. But the tumulus where they
tell us our grand-parents had a fairy grotto among
the blooming furze is likewise a puzzle, it would seem.
"Round about," exclaims a short, stout man, ap-
proaching with a tallow dip and a match-box, "hats ! "
By Saint Pol a not unnecessary warning, for it must
have been with looks demure that the buried dolmen
was entered. The match is struck and the light is
paraded round the stony walls, revealing a kind of
hatching, similar to the tatoo of the Pacific islanders,
upon the slabs, which in the eyes of innocence
might have presented the appearance of the ripple on
the pebbles or the lines of nacre ; the jade instruments
too, that chased it are also so faithfully represented
that we suppress a tear, and then there are some
zigzags. But what evidence is there that these lithe
and nimble beings dwelt here ? we ask in breathless
expectation. The short and stout man hereupon
points to three coalescent holes suitable to hold a
scent-bottle or wash the tips of your fingers, directly
above which there is a blink of the blue sky, and he
explains how they made use of these footings and
crept in and out of the crevice like rabbits, for this
was their only entry. Here it was then that the
happy lovers lived, and here they were buried in right

and possession of the Goat's Island, we exclaim half-
convinced, with a romantic sigh.

The wind blows fair and it is a straight course
across the misty river of Auray to Locmariaquer, The
huge stones that stood there as a landmark are fallen
and lie broken, but the dolmens remain, and the
village children are waiting to show us where they
lie hid among the blue-bottles and springing corn.
As is often the case, a mound or tumulus directs us to
the dolmens, and the children instinctively teach us
how to creep in and show us where are the carvings.
One resembles a turnip-top, but the hieroglyphics
are with little doubt a hoax, like the Hebrew L. D.
wanting an S. to be found somewhere.

Agam we are on a straight glaring road with
taverns at intervals, hearkening to the chirping of
the field-crickets. Who can count the grains of sand
and who can count the harpists here disclosed by the
tepid spring ? but merry as they are on their native
heaths, these musicians when imprisoned in a town,
after a time cease to rejoice at the passing wheels,
and remain mute until they die at the expiration of
June. Whilst listening to the crickets we have
passed by several dolmens that we might have
visited, and we are now in the ferry-boat crossing the
river of Orach, where tiles are made and converted
into oyster cots. A fishing-boat with blue sails is
coming in, coasting along the mud flats, and the two
garreted cottages on the high banks recall the
Scottish Highlands, and bring to mind the labours
of an archeologist from the north country whose
museum at Oarnac we are desirous to visit, were it
only for the sake of seeing the shapely stone hammer-
head there exhibited. Reluctantly we leave this
peaceful spot, and the same straight sandy road
leads us onward until we come upon a shallow inlet
parted into oyster-beds, and fringed with tamerisks.
Here we mount the declivity on the right and skirt
the dusky pine wood, but lost in the gloom we turn
down a vista where a canopy of creepers veils the
heraldry of a castle gateway. The sunlight idly
slumbers on the white walls, extinguisher spires, and
parterres within, and were the gardener to be seen
we might enquire concerning the corkscrew variety
of the garden snail, here to be looked for, as on the
coast at Deal. But perhaps some of the dependants
are about who will direct us to the standing stones of
Oarnac ; let us see. Cave canem ! here they are to
be sure, the bouncing mastiff with clenched teeth and
prodigious howl in front, the spotted dog with bull-
dog snout just behind, and all the rough-coated
favourites with cocked-up ears bringing up the rear.

A backward retreat and a scurry down into a dell
brings us upon the desired stones, standing up in
long parallel lines like skittles, and we track them
up a hillock crowned with a chess-board tower and
over the smooth heath, and as we advance they
increase in size until they rise about eight feet.
We leave them behind after a hasty glance, and

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

199

entering in at a wicket beside a cornfield gain
the route to Auray, and proceeding down it
come upon another battalion on the right, that for
want of a Joshua, suggest to our untutored minds a
game of hide and seek or a race-course. It has,
however, been suggested that they are mementoes of
some sort, or that they have even astronomical im-
port : and truly in lands where the sun is glorious
and stars are wildly and spiritually bright, temples
and altars may have arisen at the music of the
spheres, but while our churches are uniformly
oriented, it cannot escape notice that Stonehenge
faces south-west, while the lines of Carnac run south-
east.

Having inspected something short of three thou-
sand grotesque stones, old and new, suitable to recall
to mind in the evening twilight the tale of the singing
bird and the enchanted water, we turn into the lane
on the left and gain the high road close beside the
tavern of Ker Petit, where we inquire of a rustic the
way to the railway-station at Plouharnel. I don't
understand that Gallic turnabout. Indeed no, we
have walked over thirty kilos, and desire to see the
Dolmen of the Mane-Kerioned if possible before we
leave.

Note. — It would be curious to inquire whether
the late severe winter has produced many albino
stoats, blackbirds, or meadow brown butterflies ;
intense cold by checking secretion must surely be the
causation that here operates. In every case the
white variety is white from the absence of the usual
colouring-matter.

A RETICULATED AMCEBA {BIOMYXA
VAGANS).

THE observation of Biomyxa vagans in Calcutta,
is a sufficiently rare occurrence to justify me in
placing a note of it on record. The scientific name
of this interesting organism (from Gr. bios, life ;
nmxa, slime : Lat. vagans, wandering about, or
spreading out) accurately and concisely describes its
character. The granular, glassy protoplasm of which
it consists spreads itself out with a marked tendency
to polarity, its pseudopodial extensions being mainly
projected from its two opposite ends. These ex-
tensions are usually filaments, which branch and
interlace freely, thus forming an irregular network
which is constantly changing its form. The
filaments are prolongations of the central mass,
and are organically one with it. They here and
there anastomose with one another, so as to form
smaller expansions, comparable in all respects save
size, to the main mass. It seems possible from the
extreme fluidity of the whole, that any one of these
small expansions may be continually fed by the
flow from the main mass, till it becomes itself the
main mass ; and it is conceivable that the nucleus
may, in this way, be left behind in the web of the

pseudopodial net-work, as has been suggested to me
by Mr. Wood Mason, and may thus escape detection.
Along the glassy threads of the network, solitary or
associated granules course with varying degrees of
rapidity, and where most active at a rate exceeding
that of the protoplasmic current (cyclosis) in Vallis-
neria. A lady to whom I showed the specimen
under description in this note, said it looked as if it
was pouring itself out into itself — a happy way of
expressing the appearance of this interesting pheno-
menon. The flow in the thicker, and indeed in many
of the finer, pseudopodia, as the projections or
the extensions of the body-mass are called, and in
the main mass itself, is in opposite directions en
the two margins ; while in many of the finer filaments
minute, elliptical, or fusiform particles of protoplasm
glide like rain-drops along a telegraph wire. Nu-
merous minute vacuoles appear in the central
portions, and some also in the pseudopodial exten-
sions and their knot-like expansions. There is no
distinction of the body-substance into an outer, or
cortical, denser protoplasm (exoplasm), and an inner,
more fluid, medullary protoplasm (endoplasm), the
animal being of the same highly fluid consistence
throughout ; nor is a nucleus to be detected, though
this last feature may be due, as already suggested, to
the nucleus having been left stranded, as it were,
somewhere in the reticulated pseudopodial expansions.
Three or four diatoms — a species of Cocconeis
which is abundant this season in the tank from which
Biomyxa was obtained by me — and one or two stray
filaments of a minute green Alga were imbedded in
the protoplasm of the main mass of the organism
observed by me.* The same water was also the
habitat of numbers of minute flagellated monads,
bearing two flagella, one trailing behind and the
other projected forward ; and I watched with
interest several in which the anterior flagellum seemed
to have become caught in the current of the proto-
plasm, flowing in the reticulated filaments ; these
organisms were clearly being towed along the
pseudopodia, and three or four were observable, with
careful focussing, in the central mass of the organism ;
but it could not with certainty be made out whether
they were imbedded in it, or were merely adhering
to its surface. A larger monad, with only a single
flagellum, constantly swam up to the circulating
mass ; touched it repeatedly, and as it seemed
intentionally, with its whip-like appendage ; and
released itself without apparent difficulty or effort.
My objectives are not of sufficiently wide aperture to
admit of my detecting the flagella of the Bacteria,
but several Bacteria were being swept along by the
marginal protoplasmic current ; and from their
motions as compared with those of the Flagellata
referred to above, it seemed obvious that they too

* Diatoms appear to have formed the chief nourishment of
Haeckel's Protomyxa aurantiaca. See Vol. IX., " Quarterly
Journal of Microscopical Science," pp. 40 and 42.

200

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

were being held by their flagella in the circulating
protoplasm of the filaments. Numbers of Bacteria
and minute monads were lying perfectly still in the
vicinity of the web of Biomyxa, apparently dead.

Biomyxa vagans — as I have termed it, because I
consider the organism found by me identical with
the one described by Leidy at page 2S1 et seq., of
his work on the ' Fresh-water Rhizopods of North
America ' — was discovered by me in a glass bowl of
water and weeds (Anacharis and Vallisneria), taken
from the (ank on the Calcutta Maidan, which is
known as General's Tank. The water was drawn on
the 1st February. On the 22nd of the month, I had
roughly teazed out a decaying leaf of Anacharis with
needles, and was searching over the slide for

finding another like it. I should add that the water
in the bowl in question has been always rich in
Heliozoa, Difflugise {D. pyriformis, D. aciunmata, D.
corona), Arcellx, and Amoebce of various kinds, among
which last A, princeps, A. radiosa, A. Umax, and
A. giittula have already been identified.

The accompanying sketches have been made from
the organism direct, with the aid of Beck's vertical
camera. At nine o'clock, or a little after, the organism
presented the appearance delineated in fig. 177. Its ex-
tensions already spread considerably beyond the sheet
of paper used for the drawing, and had commenced
to anastomose. The organism varied in form from
moment to moment ; and hence, while the figures were
being sketched under the camera, portions already

X 250

Fig. 176. — Biomyxa vagans.

organisms, supplying the loss by evaporation from
time to time, when I noticed an Entomostracan
lying temptingly still, and commenced to sketch it ;
while thus engaged, 1 detected a granular flow in
a delicate filament of protoplasm near the edge of the
field. This was quite two hours after the water had
been first placed under the cover-glass, and under
observation. Following up the flow of granules
along this filament (which I found anastomosed with
others in its course), I was presently led on to the
main central mass above described. This was a little
after nine o'clock in the morning. The organism was
under observation all day, and when it grew dark
towards evening, I washed it back into the bowl from
which it had been taken ; but though I have carefully
searched, I have not succeeded in recovering it, or in

traced had altered slightly in contour, while those
actually under delineation had themselves doubtless
changed from the form they had at the instant the
sketch was commenced. At noon, or a little after,
the organism had obtained its fullest extension and
activity : it pervaded altogether four or five fields of
the microscope ; and I have endeavoured in fig. 176 to
delineate the anastomosis or interlacing of the proto-
plasmic filaments, using for this purpose two different
powers (fig. 176 X 250 ; fig. 179 X 370). At this time
I was able to trace the network through a complete
circuit in one direction — judging from the objects,
such as debris, etc., in the vicinity'; it was a develop-
ment of the main protoplasmic streams which enclose
the great mesh which bounds the clear space marked
A in fig. 177. Fig. 1 79 represents the protoplasmic

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

201

reticulations nearly furthest away from the central
mass of Biomyxa. At four o'clock in the afternoon
the body had contracted in all directions, probably
because there was a deficiency of oxygen in the water-
supply, for the salts held in solution had formed the
usual whitish incrustation round the edges of the
cover glass. Spherical nodules appeared on the
central body ; the flow of granular matter became
very feeble ; and the pseudopodial extensions were

Fig. 177. — Biomyxa z'agans.

gTeatly contracted and reduced in number. Fig. 17S
represents the organism at this stage ; and before my
fourth drawing was completed, two additional small,
but growing, nodules, which are not represented, had
formed, one at each end, and on opposite sides of the
body.

The micrometric scales which accompany my
sketches will enable the student to determine the
dimensions of the organism : figs. 176, 177 and 178 are
drawn with a power of 250 diameters, fig. 179 with a

power of 370 diameters. The main mass at 9 A.M.
would roughly have been about one-fiftieth of an

Fig. 178. — Biomyxa vagaiis.

inch from end to end, exclusive, of course, of the
fdaments composing the net-work. At 4 P.M. it

202

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

was about one-seventieth of an inch in length, but
its increased opacity betokened that it was denser,
and probably thicker, than it had been at any time
in the forenoon, while three or four large and vigorous
Amoebre may sometimes be seen disporting themselves
in a single field of the microscope ; Biomyxa with its
delicate reticulations fully developed pervades four or
five fields.

Adopting the most recent classification, the
systematic position of Biomyxa, according to
Biitschli, would be: Khizopoda ; Sub-order I.,
Ainccbixa ; Family Amccbaa retiadosa ; Genus
Biomyxa (Leidy) ; there being at present but one

A,^_

I 'I

lOOO

( Fig. 179. — Biomyxa vagans.

species found in the fresh-waters of North America,
and we must probably add, of India. In this
connection, the presence or absence of a nucleus in
these low forms of life is a matter of importance. If
a nucleus be present, as it is in the true Amoeba;, we
have an organism in at least its original sense — a
whole constructed, as Haeckel puts it, from dis-
similar parts, viz., an inner nucleus, and an outer
cell-matter. If, on the other hand, no nucleus be
present, then Biomyxa stands amongst what Haeckel
has termed the Monera, " organisms without
organs ; " bodies which in a physiological sense can
still be called organisms because individual portions
of them fulfil the essential life-functions of all true
organisms, nourishment, growth and reproduction.
He considers that in these homogeneous, structure-
less albumen-bodies, spontaneous generation is more
easy of conception than it is in the case of a true cell,
possessed of a division into plasma and nucleus.
Here we may note that the experiments which are so
widely held to disprove Abiogeny, or spontaneous
generation, dealt rather with the Bacteria than with
the Monera. The Monera, according to Haeckel,
may "be classed with equal propriety, or rather with
equal arbitrariness, as primitive animals, or as
primitive plants " : in other words, they may "just as
well be regarded as primitive animals or as primitive

plants " ; and this authority would accordingly
consign them to a separate kingdom of primitive
forms, the Protista, an ill-defined domain which he
places between the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
The Monera, then, according to Haeckel cannot with
confidence be predicated to be either animals or
plants. Leidy himself was not free from doubt with
regard to the position which should be assigned to
his Biomyxa. He says " It has also been a question
with me whether to regard it as a true Rhizopod, or
whether to view it as the plasmodium of a fungus.
In structure and habit, so far as observed, it seems to
accord with the latter rather than with the former,
though I have not detected a coalescence of indi-
viduals in Biomyxa. Cienkowski has described
several organisms related with the latter, of which he
regards one as a fresh-water plasmodium, while the
others are viewed as Rhizopods ; " that is, as animals.
Leidy goes on to say that Cienkowski describes a
form of naked rhizopod, with the name of Gymnophrys
cometa, which resembles Biomyxa, but differs from it
in having no contractile vesicles ; in which respect,
again, Leidy says, Biomyxa differs from the nearly
related Leptophry of Hertwig and Lesser. For our-
selves it is safest, at any rate provisionally, to accept
Biitschli's classification given above ; and to recognise
with Haeckel, that " we are just at the beginning of
our knowledge of these very interesting primordial
forms."

W. J. Simmons.
Calcutta.

Note. — This paper was read at a meeting of the
Microscopical Society of Calcutta on the 9th March,
1891.

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES.

SEEING the account of a diseased rook in the
January number of Science-Gossip, I thought
I would send the following extract written in 1SS7.

There has been much mortality among the rooks
this winter in this neighbourhood. Under one rook-
ery of about fifty couples of birds, about twenty rooks
were picked up dead, or were so weak that they could
not fly, and were thus easily killed. A small rook-
ery round here, which had nearly a dozen nests in
the spring of last year (1886), now contains only one
nest. At the beginning of the present season there
were three, but the rooks from another locality came
and destroyed two of them as they were finished.
One couple went and built in the rookery from
whence their depredators came ; the other single
couple continued for a short time and then forsook.

Two other rookeries, one containing about forty-
five nests, and the other thirteen, now contain six-
teen in the largest and only six in the other. The
number of rooks are thus reduced to about half their
former number.

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

20'

One that I found in a field, could only hop, being
quite unable to fly, and another one was found
shortly afterwards in the next field in the same
condition. The weather at the time was severe, but
the cause of this mortality was undoubtedly disease.

NOTES FOR APRIL 1S9O, BEING AN EXTRACT FROM
A LETTER.

The greater and lesser periwinkle were both in
flower the beginning of this month. Lilac leaves
also about this date ; and the hedges are now getting
forward in leaf. Young rooks were hatched about
the 1st of April, as I find by egg-shells thrown out of
the nest. What a large quantity of sticks the rooks
drop when busy building, either from their not being
suitable, or by accident ! There is enough wood
lying under a few elm trees (which contain a small
rookery of about eighteen nests) to last a person for
lighting a fire every morning for a fortnight. Snow-
drops and crocuses have all disappeared now from
our gardens. An interesting fact connected with the
Christmas-rose I have lately observed in our garden.
This plant was in flower about Christmas-time here,
and were all faded away, when about the end of
March I saw with surprise another flower half
opened, which had shot forth from the stem where
the flowers of December had died off, and now
(April 7th) I notice others on some of the other stems,
so that it seems as if it flowers twice in a season.
There is now nothing more pleasant than to ramble
through the meadows on a clear evening at this time
of the year. The rich and clear song of the black-
bird reaches us from some leafing hedgerow a little
way off, where he sits perched on the top of some
bush, cheering his less dusky spouse, as she is keep-
ing guard over her blue eggs, snugly placed in the
nest at the bottom of the bush. During the second
week. of this month the currant and gooseberry bushes
came into flower. Ground-ivy was in flower on the
9th, song-thrush with young on the loth. Fieldfares
I observed on the 13th, also a large flock of them the
day before. Cowslips were in flower under hedges
on the 13th, and dog-violets and wood-anemones
were in flower on the same day. The ivy-leaved
speedwell abounds amongst the green corn in a corn-
field called " Mill-ditch." Blackthorn was in flower
on the 13th of this month along the hedge at the
bottom of the same field.

MAY.

The trees are now putting on their summer dress,
and the hawthorn scents the evening gales. The
anemone, primrose and violet have faded away, but
others have taken their places, such as the blue-bell,
or wild hyacinth, purple orchis, germander speed-
well, and tormentil. The birds are as yet singing
merrily in the hedges and groves, but in a few
months' time all our singing-birds will be silent with

the exception of the wren and redbreast. The
blackthorn has faded from the hedgerows, its place
now taken by the milk-white hawthorn, which looks
in its full as if a snowstorm had been and left great
bunches here and there in every hedgerow. Some-
times the flowers of the hawthorn are pale red,
which look lovely in contrast with the white. The
apple-trees and the wild apple or crab are now
looking their best, soon in their turn to wither and
die.

(To be continued.)

THE LUMINOSITY OF PLANTS.
By Canon Russell.

WILL you kindly allow me to bring under
notice some facts connected with the lumino-
sity of plants which have been recently attracting my
attention? I became acquainted with them quite
accidentally, in the following way.

On the evening of the i6th of June, 1889, I
happened to be taking a stroll round the Rectory
Garden, and passing by a fine plant of the common
double marigold {Calenditla officinalis) of a deep
orange colour, I was struck by a peculiar brightness
in the appearance of the flowers. After watching for
a few seconds, I observed, to my great surprise, that
corruscations of light, (like mimic lightning) were
playing over the petals. Thinking that I might be
only the victim of an ocular illusion, I brought out
other members of the household, and asked them to
report exactly what they saw. Some perceived the
flashes readily enough, but others only slowly and
after patient observation, all eyes not being equally
sensitive to such rapid vibrations of light.

These performances commenced about 8.30 P.M.
and continued for perhaps under an hour. I after-
wards ascertained, that much later on, when it was
almost dark, the whole plant seemed to glow with a
sort of pulsing phosphorescence. The common
nasturtium, and the scarlet geraniums showed a like
luminosity. Closely connected with their appear-
ances, I could distinctly see a blue vapour of
extreme tenuity given off from the leaves of some
of these plants, if not from all, in open daylight or
under lamplight. This can be best seen by holding
the leaf against a dark background, and letting the
light fall upon it at various angles. These two last
phenomena were not as readily detected by other
persons as were the sparks of the marigold. They
were made, however, abundantly evident to all eyes
in the following way. I put a leaf of the nasturtium
on the stage of a microscope — and, having focussed it
for the central spot from which the nerves branch off,
under an inch and a half objective, I brought it
into a room nearly dark. Looking at it then through
the microscope I found that the leaf could be dis-
tinctly seen almost by its own light. The appearance

J04

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

of the luminous vapour floating over its surface (like
moonlight over rippling water) was strikingly beau-
tiful. The whole leaf seemed to twinkle with points
of light — the main ribs radiating from the common
centre, shining out like a silver star. These effects
are best witnessed after a day of hot sunshine. Some
further facts and suggestions which may point to a
possible explanation of these phenomena I reserve for
another paper.

REMARKS ON DISTYLA, WITH DESCRIP-
TIONS OF THREE NEW ROTIFERS.

By David Bryce.

IN a recent article (SciENCE-GossiP, Sept. 1890),
my correspondent, Mr. J. E. Lord, expressed
his suspicion that the genusi Distyla is not a good
one, and he described as Cathypnre two forms of
which he remarked that, "when retracted they are
undoubtedly CathypnK, when extended as certainly
would they be described as Distylae." He further

\v\ii!//'/r

Fig. 180. — Distyla depressa.
Dorsal view, extended.

Fig. 181. — Ditto, lateral.
X 320.

suggested that some if not all of the species of
Distyla are but extended Rotifera of the genus
Cathypna.

I had hoped that ere this some other observer
would have been induced to plead the cause of
Distyla, but, behold, Jove thundered and lesser

tongues were mute.

For myself, I cannot claim to have examined more
than five or six species of the two genera in question,
and my remarks are perhaps to be regarded as
provisional rather than as final. Yet there are points

indicated by Mr. Lord, which, I think, should not
be allowed to pass without comment in the pages of
Science-Gossip.

I would first point out that, by some misunder-
standing, Mr. Lord assumes that Mr. Gosse's phrase
"habitual protrusion of the head," refers to some
inability of the rotifer to withdraw its head between
the plates of the lorica. It is true that the figure
(after Ehrenberg) oi Distyla Hortie 7nanni in "The
Supplement " represents this species with its head
protruding and its cilia extended, although otherwise
much retracted, but I am 'inclined to deny credence
to that remarkable position until I see some Distyla
assume it. On the contrary, Mr. Gosse's words can
only mean that as compared with the very sluggish^
timid or indolent habits of the Cathypnre, the Distylre
are more usually active and less prone to indulge in
naps (?) when under observation. All the Distylee I
have seen were perfectly able to retract their heads
within the lorica plates.

In the next place, Mr. Lord appears to have
overlooked the fact that Eckstein founded the genus.

Fig. 183.— Ditto, braiia.

XS40.

Fig. 182.— Ditto, ventral view.

Distyla in 18S3 ; and it has therefore 'priority over
Cathypna instituted by Mr. Gosse in 1SS6, at the
same time that he set apart the family of the
Cathypnadse, to include not only Cathypna, but, inter
alia, the Distyla of Eckstein, which he thus distinctly
accepted and confirmed. If, therefore, the distinc-
tions set up between the two genera were shadowy
or insufficient, it would be the genus Cathypna that
would have to give way, not the genus Distyla.

Again, if a species be so balanced between two
genera as to appear to belong to one when extended,
and to the other when retracted, there can be no
question that the extended position being the
natural one, the species must be assigned to that
genus to which it conforms when extended or active,
and I submit that on Mr. Lord's own showing, his

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

205

two species are certainly Distylce, and his description
and figures as certainly indicate that genus.

I observe that in his quotation of Mr Gosse's
remarks about Distyla, he omits the word lengthened.
Mr. Gosse says "the lengthened and flattened form."
The omission is of course unintentional, but the
character is important and fits Mr. Lord's species.

As to the distinctions between the two genera,
these have been set forth in such a plain and concise
way in the criticism of Mr. Lord's article which
appeared in the December issue of the Journal of the
Royal Microscopical Society, that I may perhaps be
permitted to quote the sentence for the benefit of
those who have no opportunity of seeing the original.
" In Cathypna the whole trunk is loricated and the
creature when extended is dorsally arched ; but
in Distyla only the hinder portion of the trunk
is loricated, the forepart having a membranous
covering and the creature, when extended, is com-
paratively flat, or, as it is termed, depressed," Save
that the writer omits to draw attention to the usual
outline of the two genera when extended, Cathypna

Fig. 184. — Monostyla arcuata.
Ventral view. X 320.

Fig. 185.— Ditto, dorsal
view.

being generally ovate, and Distyla of the form of a
long ellipse, the above sentence perfectly and briefly
summarises the points of difference.

All other points in the generic characters are, I
think, either common to both genera, as "lorica
closed behind, toes two, selvage-like thickenings of
the lorica around the foot," or of secondary import-
ance as depending upon individual estimate, such as
lateral inangulation strong or feeble, or of habit,
such as " the habitual protrusion of the head " and
"the more constant activity." All these may be
safely disregarded, when there are present the
leading characters pointed out in the sentence
quoted.

There appears to be some confusion as to the
meaning of the term lorica, in respect of the genus
Distyla. I am not myself quite clear that it ought to
be restricted to that portion of the covering of the
trunk, which appears to remain stiff and hard when
the animal is retracted. I have found that different
individuals of the same species do not always retract
to the same degree, that whilst at one time two short
lateral points (as described in many species) are
easily visible, at another time the retraction will be

less complete and no points are to be seen ; and I
have found dead specimens of the same species, from
which the head and all interior parts have vanished,
yet displaying an apparently permanent shell much
exceeding that shown in retraction. I conclude that
the restricted use of the term may be convenient but
is possibly incorrect, and that the absence of the two
lateral points is a character that especially requires
careful verification.

Although among some genera of the Rotifera mere
size is an unsafe guide to identification, there are
others in which, regard being had to mature
individuals only, the dimensions of the different
species are closely adhered to. Among the Cathy-
pnadae I have found the variation to be very slight,
not I think more than 10 per cent., if so much. It
would therefore be an assistance to those who hope

Fig. zZi .—M onostyla.
cornuta. X 320.

Fig. 1 86. — Distyla musicola.
Ventral aspect. X 480.

to meet with Mr. Lord's forms, if he would state
particulars of the measurements when extended and
when retracted. It is also useful to know the exact
shape and length of the toes. There is in nearly
every genus, one point in which the species appear to
agree to differ. In the genus Macrotra.chela it is the
spurs, in Distyla and Cathypna the toes.

I append descriptions of two species, which appear
to me very distinct from any of those yet described,
and of a Monostyla closely related to, but not identical
with, the common and well-known M. cornuta,

Distyla depressa.

Sp. Ch.— Lorica much flattened, ovate, truncate at
both ends ; anterior edges, ventral excised in moderate
curve, dorsal straight ; two short lateral points
shown in extreme retraction ; dorsal plate shorter
than ventral and narrower behind ; toes blade-shaped,
acute, slightly decurved ; brain three-lobed.

2o6

HARD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

The lorica is very flat, the average thickness of
fairly matured specimens being rather less than one-
fourth of the length of the dorsal plate. It is free
from flutings or tesselation and moderately firm. In
retraction the outline of the trunk is scarcely altered,
the proportion of loricated to membranous covering
being unusually great. In lateral view some irregular
wrinkles are visible in the integument lining the
lateral infold, which is well-marked (see dotted lines
Fig. i8o), although the plates are but little separated.
The dorsal plate, while in front as broad as the
ventral, is rather narrower behind, and is abruptly
and somewhat convexly truncate. The ventral plate
is excised anteriorly, permitting the head to be bent
down as shown in lateral view. The outline is
posteriorly completed by the dilated basal foot-joint,
which appears to be almost fixed and to have even
less freedom than usual in the genus. It is difficult
to trace lines indicating the junction of this joint
with the trunk on either dorsal or ventral side, but
those I have shown are, I think, correct. Indeed,
the joint is little more than a partly shelly, partly
membranous framework protecting and supporting
the sub-square lower foot -joint, which issues from the
under side and pivots on a blunt point arising from
the ventral plate. The toes, seen vertically, are
widest at the base, are then slightly pinched in,
again widen and finally taper to acute points without
either claws or shoulders. This curvature is confined
to the outer edges ; the inner being quite straight,
yet with a slight rugosity near the base. Seen
laterally the upper edges are decurved and the lower
nearly straight.

The ample brain is in front bluntly pointed, but
%videns into three lobes, of which the central is the
greatest and bears near the inner side at its base the
bright rose-red eye. The wedge-shaped outline of
the prone face is interrupted by two knob-like pro-
jections whose nature and origin I have been unable
as yet to determine. The powerful mastax is well
forward, and I believe I have seen the jaws slightly
protruding into the buccal cavity. An oesophagus of
moderate length is attached to the inner side of
mastax and passing down it, proceeds to the stomach,
the lower part being in constant and rapid undulation.
The stomach, surmounted by the usual gastric glands,
is separated by a distinct constriction from a capacious
intestine, and in both ciliary action is apparent. The
vascular system embraces lateral canals, at least three
pairs of vibratile tags, and a small contractile vesicle
having a short period. Two band-like muscles pass
from the head down the back. Length ;— total,
ilo inch, toes about 5I5 inch, breadth 570 inch.

In a gathering made in March 1890, from the
River Lea, below the Lea Bridge Waterworks, and
which I had placed on one side, I found some months
later a flourishing colony of Rotifera. The species
were few but very select, the most conspicuous being
Adineta oculata, only hitherto found, I believe, near

Aberdeen. Along with it were many examples of
this Distyla, some Callidiita elegans, and some others.
The three forms named continued to flourish up to
the end of November, when the severe weather
wrought havoc among the colony. The Distylse
succumbed, but the other two species survived and
now after thirteen months the stock seems fairly
vigorous. It is noteworthy, that the supply of water
has never exceeded two ounces, any loss from
evaporation having been simply replaced from time
to time from the household supply, that no artificial
feeding was resorted to, and that no pond weeds were
present, the plant side of the balance of life being
represented principally by Scenedesmus and a
scanty growth of Oscillatoracese.

Distyla mtisicola.

Sp. Ch. — Lorica ovate, flattened, both anterior
edges truncate, almost straight, two very short lateral
points seen in utmost retraction. Dorsal plate rather
broader and longer than ventral, and rounded behind.
Ventral plate with a definite and shelly central portion
almost plane, from which a less stiff" integument
recedes laterally to the edge of the infold, and
posteriorly merges into that of the dilated basal joint
of the foot. Toes, tapering, acute, without claw or
shoulder.

Numerous dead examples have occurred amongst
the sediment of water drained from Sphagnum, but I
have only as yet found one living specimen. The
remains seen have however shown the creature in
every position, and I find that as in D. depressa the
outline of the trunk is not greatly changed by retrac-
tion, and that extended the form is that of a long
oval, rather than that of an ellipse. The head is
wedge-shaped, the face rather prone, and the mastax
normal. Some very delicate markings can some-
times be seen on the shelly portion of the ventral
plate. The membranous lining of the infold is so
wrinkled as to give a peculiar scalloiDed appearance
to the lateral margins. The basal joint of the foot is
as in D. depressa, but even less distinct. The lower
joiut is much narrowed at the base. The blunt point
on which it pivots, appears however to arise from the
upper joint and not from the ventral plate. The
toes are thickest just above their middle and taper
thence to fine points. They appear straight in vertical
view, but seen laterally, they are sHghtly decurved,
with upwards-turning points.

Length, extended, estimated at jj,^ inch ; retracted
sjg inch ; breadth, 3^ inch ; toes, -^-^-^ inch.

Habitat, among roots of Sphagnum, Epping
Forest.

Monostyla arcuata,

Sp. Ch. — Lorica ovate, moderately depressed ;
occi^iital edge shallowly, pectoral edge deeply excised
in somewhat bow-shaped curve. Toe rather blade-
shaped tapering to an acute point, without claw or
shoiilder.

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

;o7

This species resembles very closely the widely dis-
tributed J/, corniita and differs from it principally in
being about one-fourth smaller, and rather narrower
in proportion, and in having both the anterior edges
of the lorica excised and to a greater degree. Mr.
Gosse states that in M. cornuta the front of the lorica
is shallowly incurved, that the anterior dorsal edge is
slightly less incurved than that of M. hmaris, but
that the ventral edge has its margin quite straight.
I think that here he is slightly in error, and partly on
this account, and partly for the sake of comparison
with the figure of the new species, I add an outline of
the ventral aspect of the lorica of M. cor?mta when
retracted. This position (not figured by Mr. Gosse)
shows the straight occipital edge and the very slightly
excavate pectoral edge of the lorica as well as the
large basal foot-joint. In the numerous examples I
have examined, the occipital edge has always seemed
straight and the pectoral slightly excavate, and this
structure is exactly what would be necessary to
facilitate the bending downwards of the head.

In any case, in M. arcuata, the excision of both
anterior edges is much sharper than in M. lunaris.
In all other details, in general aspect when extended,
and in its sluggish habits, the species is the counter-
part of M. cormtta, yet the differences noted, though
minute, are constant, and I consider fairly entitle the
form to rank as distinct.

Mr. Gosse gives the length of M. cornuia as
135 inch extended. The largest specimens I have
measured were about ^^Ij inch, and the average -^^^ inch,
while M. arcuata in the like position averages
5^3 inch, the lorica alone being about jig inch. I have
found dead specimens very abundantly among the
drainings from Sphagnum and I have recently had
for a little time a colony in a jar, the bottom of which
was covered with some threads of moss, gathered last
year and now springing into fresh growth.

My sketches show a broad and a narrow form,
apparently the extremes of variation, the former being
probably a more mature individual. Young speci-
mens resemble when slowly gliding along, the form
which I take (yet with some doubt) to be the M.
mollis of Mr. Gosse, which however when in retrac-
tion s not to be distinguished from M. cornuta and is
therefore equally distinct from the present.

Habitat among roots of Sphagnum, Epping Forest.

NEC-DARWINISM.

By A. G. Tansley.

I. — The Question at Issue.

A RE we still justified in holding Mr. Darwin's

l\ conclusion that "habit, or use and disuse,

have in some cases played a considerable part in the

modification of the constitution and structure ; " * or

should we rather consider, with a more modern

' Origin of Species, ".6th edition, p. 114.

school of naturalists, that this supposed factor in the
transmutation of species is unproven and unnecessary ;
unproven because the hereditary transmission of
characters acquired during the lifetime of the indi-
vidual has never been experimentally established, and
unnecessary because we can explain the phenomena
of organic evolution without invoking its aid ?

Such is the question which, of all others, is now
engaging the attention of the biological world.
Closely connected with it is the consideration of
Professor Weismann's brilliant contributions to the
existing literature of variation and heredity, including
a theory of heredity absolutely inconsistent with the
conclusion of Mr. Darwin which we have quoted.
For the last two years and a half, that is since the
discussion on the transmission of acquired characters
raised by Professor Ray Lankester at the Manchester
Meeting of the British Association in 1887, in
which Professor Weismann himself took part — this
subject has been prominently before English natu-
ralists. During this period there has been no paper
or discussion on the subject, hardly even a reference
to it, in the pages of Science-Gossip.* It is
obvious that the question is one of the deepest
interest, affecting, as it does, the very foundation of
our conception of organic evolution. If the " La-
marckian" factor, as it is sometimes called, is a true
factor, it must have played an important part in the
modification of species. If we are to reject it alto-
gether, a large number of phenomena will have to be
explained in other ways ; in fact its rejection will en-
tail a more or less important modification of the
Darwinism of Mr. Darwin. Apart from these con-
siderations. Professor Weismann's theories of heredity,
variation, etc., which differ essentially from those
hitherto generally held, are concerned with matters
lying at the root of any explanation of evolution. I
therefore thought that a series of papers on the
subject, which should aim at setting forth, as briefly
as possible, the various problems involved, would be
of interest to those readers of Science-Gossip who
may lack the time or inclination to study the subject
more deeply. The method I propose to pursue is,
first to state clearly the main question at issue, which
turns on the truth or falsehood of what is known as
Lamarck's "second law," and to sketch the present
position of opinion upon -it, then to give an outline of
Professor Weismann's hypotheses on the subject of
heredity and variation, and finally to try and show
the exact bearing of these theories on the question
with which I started.

We will commence our brief account of the position
of opinion on the subject under discussion, and of
how it came to be what it is, by stating the question
at issue and then defining our terms. The question
in its most general form is: "Can an 'acquired'
character be inherited ? "

* The above was written in April, 1890.

2o8

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Now it has been sometimes objected that to deny
the inheritance of acquired characters is equivalent to
denying the possibility of all modification in descent,
since every new modification must be "acquired"
by the species at some period of its existence. This
objection is, of course, based upon an initial mis-
conception of the recognised meaning of the word
" acquired " in this connection.

By an *^ acquired" character is meant a character
■which is not in any sense present in the fertilised
ovum from which the organism it belongs to was
developed, but is acquired by that organism at some
period ajter the first cell-division.

An inherent or congenital character, on the other
hand, is a character which does exist potentially in the
fertilised ovum befo7-e the first cell-division.

The question before us can then be expressed
concisely as follows : " Can an acquired character
become congenital ? "

It is well-known that Erasmus Darwin * and, later,
Lamarck f conceived the idea that species are not im-
mutable, and that the individuals representing them
at the present day are descended from other simpler
forms ; that Lamarck explained this process of evolu-
tion chiefly by an innate tendency to development
along certain lines, partly by the growth of organs in
response to a desire on the part of the animal, and
partly by the transmission of the effects of increased
use and disuse, of habit, or of the direct effects of the
environment. It is clear that the last class of means
of transmutation indicated is the only attempt at a
scientific explanation of the phenomena in question ;
of the other explanations, the first is essentially un-
scientific, and the second is too preposterous to need
discussion. The last suggestion is. however, in quite
a different position. We know that as a matter of
fact increased use or disuse of a particular part has,
during a single lifetime, a considerable effect on that
part ; and we are familiar with changes produced in
an individual by the direct effect of the environment.
What more natural than to suppose that such con-
siderable changes are hereditary, and that in course of
time their accumulation will effect a modification of
specific rank ? So thought Lamarck, and he accord-
ingly formulated his "second law:" "Everything
that nature has made individuals acquire or lose by
the influence of circumstances under which their
race is placed for a long time, and consequently by
the influence of the predominant use of a particular
organ, or by that of a continual falling off in the use
of such a part, she preserves by the act of generation
to the new individuals which follow, provided that
the acquired modifications are common to the two
sexes, or to those individuals which have produced
the new one." J It is obvious that this "law" is

* "Zoonomia."

+ " Philosophic Zoologique."

X " Deiixiciiic Lot. Tout ce que la nature a fait acquerir ou
perdre aux individus par I'influence des circonstances ou leur
race se trouve depuis longtemps exposde, et par consequent

quite inadequate to account for all the phenomena of
organic evolution. It offers, for example, no explana-
tion of all the complex and wonderful phenomena of
adaptation. As we have seen, it only furnished a
small part of Lamarck's explanation. His philosophy
completely failed to convince the great mass of
thinking men of the truth of evolution. Goethe was
perhaps the most notable and enthusiastic of his few
partisans ; but later on, as Mr. Herbert Spencer tells
us,* there was a small band of evolutionists in Eng-
land who accepted Lamarck's second law as at least a
partial explanation of that transmutation of species
which they believe had taken place. For the rest they
were totally at a loss. Hardly a biologist or geologist
agreed with them. Sir Charles Lyell had argued
brilliantly against Lamarck : Mr. Huxley was a firm
anti-evolutionist. Then came the " Origin of
Species," with the luminous principle of natural
selection, which has effected so profound a change in
the attitude of the world to the doctrine of evolution,
and which is too familiar to need exposition here.
We may, however, point out the great and funda-
mental difference between the Lamarckian and Dar-
winian theories of evolution. Apart from the fact
that that part of Lamarck's explanation which is
alone worthy of serious consideration constitutes but
a small portion of his whole conception, we must
remember that even this is a mere ^/>;'/m speculation,
and is not supported by a single fact of observation or
experiment. Darwin's theory of natural selection, on
the other hand, rests secure on the threefold base of
the facts of variation, of heredity, and of the struggle
for existence. And the method by which these
" factors " must co-operate to secure the " survival of
the fittest " is obvious as soon as it is stated. In other
words natural selection is a vera causa, and its enemies
are obliged to confine themselves to the task of trying
to demonstrate that at most it can effect but little in
the direction of the transmutation of species.f And
in addition to this the results of artificial selection by
breeders can be pointed to for the demonstration of
what actually has been done by a selective process
continued for many generations. But we cannot
adduce similar considerations on behalf of the so-called
Lamarckian factor. It has never been proved to be
a vera causa, and for this reason — while the facts of
the modification of organs by use and disuse, or by
the direct action of the environment during an in-
dividual lifetime are perfectly well established, the
inheritance of the effects of such modifications are
not.

It is true that the adherents of the theory in ques-

par I'influence de I'emploi predominant de tel organe, ou par
cellc d'un d^faut constant d'usage de tellepartie, eUe le con-
serve par la g<Sn6ration aux nouveaux individus qui en pro-
viennent, pourvu que les changements acquis soient communs
aux deux sexes ou a ceux qui ont produit ces nouveaux
individus." — "Philosophic Zoologique," tome i. p. 235, edition
Savy, 1873.

* " Factors of Organic Evolution," pp. 2-3.

t E.g., vide Dr. St. G. Mivart, "Nature," December 6tli,
1888.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

209

tion — which has until just recently been accepted
unhesitatingly — bring forward a mass of indirect
evidence in support of their view ; nevertheless, it is
quite apparent that so long as direct experimental
evidence, about which no doubt can exist, is wanting,
this fundamental insecurity must exist. But to this
subject we shall return later.

It is hardly necessary to remind any one familiar
with Mr. Darwin's works that he considered certain
phenomena to be only explicable as the inherited
effects of increased use or disuse of particular organs.
Many of the phenomena of degeneration, for in-
stance, in a useless organ, he thought were due to the
effects of disuse. He expressly states * that the
working of this factor is always subordinate to natural
selection, and that in some cases its effects are de-
stroyed by the latter ; but there is no doubt, as Mr.
Herbert Spencer has shown, f that, as time went
on, he attributed increasing importance to this
factor ; that he was, in fact, driven slightly from his
original position by hostile criticism. Later in life,
too, he became convinced that the cumulative direct
effect of changed conditions had been important in
some cases, especially where partial or complete
isolation allowed them to have full effect. In a letter
to Professor Wagner in 1876, % he goes so far as to
say, "In my ©pinion the greatest error which I have
committed has been not allowing sufficient weight to
the direct action of the environment, i.e. food,
climate, etc., independently of natural selection."

But although Mr. Darwin believed in the trans-
mission by heredity of "acquired modifications," I
think it is a mistake to suppose that he derived his
belief from Lamarck's teaching. No one doubted,
until quite recently, that characters acquired during
the life of the individual were hereditary equally with
congenital ones. Mr. Darwin found that he could
not explain certain phenomena by natural selection,
and thought that they were best explicable as the
result of increased use or disuse, etc. The explana-
tion formed but a small part of Mr. Darwin's theory,
as it had of Lamarck's, but while it was scientifically
the strongest portion of the Lamarckian doctrine of
evolution, it was the weakest of the Darwinian. We
know that Mr. Darwin did not estimate the " Philo-
sophic Zoologique " very highly. Thus he says : "It
is curious how largely my grandfather. Dr. Erasmus
Darwin, anticipated the views and erroneous grounds
of opinion of Lamarck in his ' Zoonomia ' (vol. i. pp.
500-510), published in 1794." § Again, he remon-
strates with Lyell in 1863 for alluding to his (Darwin's)
views as "a modification of Lamarck's doctrine of
development and progression," and remarks that
" this way of putting the case is very injurious to its
acceptance, as it implies necessary progression, and

* Loc. cit. p. 114, &c.

t " Factors of Organic Evolution," pp. 32-33.

J "Life," iii. p. 159.

>5 " Origin," 6th edition. Historical Sketch, p. xiv.

closely connects Wallace's and my views with what I
consider, after two deliberate readings, as a wretched
book, and one from which (I well remember my
surprise) I gained nothing." * In a letter to Hooker
he characterises the " Philosophic " as " veritable
rubbish," f and finally in October, 1859, just before
the publication of the " Origin" we find the following
remark as the postscript of a letter to Lyell : "You
often allude to Lamarck's work ; I do not know what
you think about it, but it appeared to me extremely
poor ; I got not a fact or idea from it." \ With
these very definite and strong statements of Darwin
before us we can hardly contend, I think, that he
borrowed his views about the inheritance of acquired
characters from Lamarck. In his " Historical
Sketch," prefixed to the sixth edition of the
"Origin," he calls attention to the "eminent ser-
vice" done by Lamarck in "arousing attention to
the probability of all change in the organic world
being the result of law ; " (p. xiv.) but there is no
word of praise for that part of the French naturalist's
theory of evolution which coincides with some of
Darwin's own views. I do not think there remains a
doubt that the " trace of Lamarckism " often alluded
to as remaining in the Darwinian theory, is not
Lamarckism at all, except in the sense that Lamarck
advocated similar views. As I have said, at the
time when the "Origin" was thought out and
written, and for a long while afterwards it had
never occurred to any one to doubt that acquired
characters could be inherited, and it was natural
enough for Darwin to use this universally accepted
factor to supplement natural selection. We find his
nearest approach to dogmatism on this subject :
"Changed habits produce an inherited effect, as in
the period of the flowering of plants when trans-
ported from one climate to another, etc." § The
naturalness of such an occurrence being obviously
taken for granted, there is in many cases hardly an
attempt at proof, and very seldom is the evidence for
and against the explanation given worked out and
weighed with the minute and painstaking care to
which we are accustomed in all Darwin's works.

I have insisted on these considerations because it
seems of very considerable importance to ascertain
Darwin's exact attitude towards the views in question,
how and why he acquired them, and what relation
they bore in his mind to the theory of natural
selection. And it seems nearly certain that, unlike
that great hypothesis, the inheritance of acquired
characters was used as an obvious supplemental
explanation, and that a doubt of the truth of its
fundamental facts never entered Darwin's heaa.
But I deny that Darwin " partially retained the
Lamarckian explanation," thereby deliberately
adopting any of the speculative "laws" of the

* "Life," iii. p. 14.

% Ibid. ii. p. 215.

f Ibid. ii. p. 29.
j "Origin," p. £

2IO

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

French naturalist. Mr. Tlatt Ball, in his little
book on the "Effects of Use and Disuse," holds
this view, and even remarks that " Darwin's belief
in the inheritance of acquired characters was more
or less hereditary in the family," instancing his
father's and grandfather's views on this point. Unless
Mr. Ball is prepared to maintain that there was a
special inherent predisposition in the Darwin family
towards this belief, he is here assuming the inheri-
tance of an acquired character !

As has been already mentioned, Mr. Darwin
attributed more and more importance to this factor in
the successive editions of the "Origin," and his opinion
on the point culminated in the letter to Professor
Wagner already quoted.* It is remarkable too, that he
was constrained to form a theory of heredity on the lines
of Pangenesis largely to explain these very phenomena.
In a letter to Huxley, speaking of his as yet unpub-
lished hypothesis of Pangenesis, he says: "I think
some such view will have to be adopted, when I call
to mind the inherited effects of use and disuse, etc."t
Here Darwin was absolutely right. As we shall
point out more fully hereafter when discussing possi-
ble theories of heredity, "some such view" must
be adopted if we believe that the effects of use and
disuse are inherited. The naturalists who refused to
accept the main idea of " Pangenesis " were trying to
maintain an untenable position while they believed
in such inheritance. Neither Darwin nor they,
however, perceived the only possible alternative — an
I alternative which has now been accepted by many —
to re-examine the whole grounds of our belief, and
boldly declare that definite proof of such inheritance
is wanting. This at once casts the ofius probandi
upon our opponents, and exempts us from the
astounding exercise of faith required to believe in the
mechanism of Pangenesis.

The history of the growth of opinion since 1859 on
the subject of the factors of organic evolution is too
long a story to be more than touched upon here.
But tbe extreme views which have sprung up on
both sides, and the complete chain of connection
between them are sufficiently remarkable. On the
one hand we have the Neo-Lamarckians ; in the
main an American school of palaeontologists, (of
■whom Professor Cope is perhaps the best-known
member) who reduce the action of natural selection
to an almost negligeable minimum, and consider
that use and disuse, etc., have been the main agents
in the evolution of such structures, for instance, as
the mammalian tooth. Professor Eimer in Germany
and Mr. Cunningham in England hold somewhat
similar views. Then we have a class of biologists
like Mr. Patrick Geddes, who believes in natural

It is collaterally interesting, however, to note that so late
as 1881 Darwin was "staggered" (by Hoffman's experiments
on the direct effect of conditions on plants) in his views about
the increase of variability, especially in cultivated plants,
through such direct effects. — "Life," iii. p. 345.
■f" Ibid. iii. p. 44.

selection to a certain extent, but rather uses it to
supplement various more or less ingenious theories
of his own, which appear to him to account for the
main facts of evolution better than do Darwin's.

Next we have Mr. Herbert Spencer (and his
followers) who stands in a distinctly different position
to any of the foregoing, inasmuch as he believed in
evolution before 1859, and therefore certainly does
not owe from a speculative point of view so much
to Darwin's work as do most other people. Mr.
Spencer believes, and always did believe, that all
organisms are being directly and profoundly affected
from moment to moment by the environment, and
that the modifications so brought about cannot fail
to be transmitted to their offspring. He believes
too, that modifications of function in the individual
life effect permanent modifications of function and
structure in phylogeny (or life of the species) inde-
pendently of natural selection. This continual direct
attempt, as it were, on the part of an organism
to adjust itself to its environment he calls " Direct
Equilibration." He accepts the process of natural
selection, also, as an important factor, and calls it
"Indirect Equilibration," i.e., the indirect process of
adjustment to environment, through variation, and
the survival of the fittest.

These are the views enunciated in the " Principles
of Biology," and quite lately in two articles in the
"Nineteenth Century" for 1886* he has emphasised
them, and added new arguments and fuller evidence.

Professor Burdon-Sanderson has suggested that
those who think such factors as the ones specially
worked out by Mr. Spencer to be true factors and
of extensive application should be called " Spen-
cerians " rather than Lamarckians, because, as has
already been pointed out, such views as these formed
but an insignificant portion of the Lamarckian doc-
trine of evolution, while they have always been
insisted on as most important by Mr. Spencer, who
has, in addition, expressed them in a more general
form and widened their meaning and application.
The appellation would certainly serve to distinguish
the people in question on the one hand from the
extreme Neo-Lamarckians, and on the other from
true Darwinians.

Next to the Spencerians we have biologists with
views like Professor Romanes, who claim to be the
true Darwinians, in holding the position of Darwin's
later years. They consider natural selection to be
the main factor, but recogni=e various others as
supplementary to it, such as "physiological selec-
tion," and the effects of other kinds of segregation,
either physiological or geographical, and in some
cases recognising to a greater or less extent the
Spencerian or Lamarckian factors, or else reserving
their judgment on this point. Closely following on
these, we have, so far as my experience has gone.

* Reprinted as "The Factors of Organic Evolution."

ZTAKnWlCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

211

the main body of working biologists, who do
not, perhaps, go so far as the Neo-Darwinians,
but whose continually enlarging experience of the
wonderful and beautiful adaptations to be found in
every nook and cranny of the organic world and con-
stantly coming to light in their studies — anatomical,
histological, physiological, or bionomic — makes them
firm believers in natural selection, as overwhelmingly
the most important cause of evolution, and gives them
a reluctance — ^justifiable or the reverse — to place much
confidence in such supplementary factors as those I
have mentioned.

Lastly we have the extreme "Neo-Darwinians,"
as Professor Ray Lankester has called them, whose
position may be summarised as follows. They
assert :

(i) That the inheritance of any character acquired
by an individual during its lifetime has never been
experimentally proved : (2) that hence we are ' not
justified in explaining any of the facts of evolution by
any process which involves such inheritance : (3) that
these facts can be as well or better explained by
natural selection and kindred selective processes in
conjunction with the effects of training during the
individual life-time than by the alleged inheritance of
acquired characters, and that hence the indirect
evidence for such inheritance can be refuted, and (4)
that the onus probandi x^^i's,, not on them, but on their
opponents, who would retain an unproved and un-
necessary (though hitherto universally-accepted)
factor, in our explanation of evolution.

Professor Weismann, Professor Lankester, Professor
Meldola, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Poulton are examples
of some of the more distinguished of the Neo-
Darwinians.

In subsequent papers we shall be chiefly occupied
in investigating the justification of their views.

THE WHITE FLOWER QUESTION.
By Fred. H. Davey.

IT would indeed be passing strange if the interest-
ing correspondence on this subject did not lead
to some profitable conclusion. It is one of the
branches of botany which has notoriously held the
background, notwithstanding the probabilities that it
might ultimately throw valuable light on the origin
of new varieties, and thus minimise the labours of
the large and indefatigable band of biologists who
give their whole energies to a solution of the problem.
Albinism in the animal kingdom, more particularly
in the genus homo, has long been an interesting field
of labour to scientists, and from all accounts has led
to good results, so far as it has been proved albino
varieties may at times possess the power of trans-
mitting their peculiarities to their offspring. I don't
mean to assert it is an established fact that albinism
in the human family is hereditary. But I do say it is
now beyond the range of probabilities that in the

lower animal creation, at least, albino varieties have
begotten progeny with similar tendencies. Why,
then, seeing it is of such vital importance, has the
subject of white variations in the vegetable kingdom
been so monstrously neglected ?

I for one must object to the word albinism being
used in reference to floral variations which assume a
whitish colour. By an albino I understand an animal
possessing white feathers, white fur, white hair, or a
white skin, with the addition of pink or red eyes. I
freely admit in either instance the variation may be
the result of similar pathological modifications, but
even that hardly warrants a use of the same term in
both cases. Were it so, we might with as good
reason term the sweat-glands of the human body
stomata, or the system of tissues through which
nourishment is conveyed to the extremities of a plant
the alimentary canal.

One cannot be too cautious in advancing opinions
on a subject so wide in its range and fraught with so
many difficulties ; and of course, npt being a
practical biologist, I dare not dogmatise in this case.
But to myself, as I presume has likewise been the
case with a great many readers of Science Gossip,
the question naturally suggests itself, " How best to
account for these deviations ? " Do they occur
through a modification of the pigment cells ? Is there
an intensified oxidation of the chromule ? Is there
really an absence in the pigment of certain elements
essential to the normal colouring? Or are these
variations the outcome of a progressive or retrogressive
development of colouring-matter ? Pertinent ques-
tions these, although such as ought to be partly, if
not even wholly, met by the more advanced readers
of, and contributors to, these columns. Will they
come to our rescue ? I am daily more and more
convinced of the importance of the subject, and am
certain many others will with myself feel grateful for
any light.

This district is inordinately prolific in the way of
white variations. From Bissoe my father has repeat-
edly brought pure white specimens' of Calhitta erica,
IL?ica cuierca, and E. tetralix, and a few beautiful
white heads of Cetitaicrea nigra. From the Lizard
I have had huge bunches of Erica vagans brought
me, embracing every shade from snowy white to deep
purple. My father entertains no doubt at all on the
plants he has seen producing white flowers year after
year. Some of them he has carefully watched for
upwards of twenty years without being able to detect
the remotest disposition on their part to return to
the normal colour. Ei-ica ciliaris, on the contrary,
never produces in this locality any but the rich pink
flowers.

The most peculiar variation coming under my own
notice was a low, dwarf-like variety of IVaJilcnbergia
hederacea, bearing elegant white flowers, if anything
a little more bell-shaped than those of the type-form.
The plant cropped up in quantities some five years

212

HARDWICKE'S SCIE2Src£-GOSSii-.

ago in a small bog close by, and continued to thrive
there up to last summer. What struck me as the
most remarkable feature of the case, was that the little
pigmy grew in a straight line across the moor, at no
part spreading more than three or four feet. It was
a pretty sight to stand at one end and trace this
dainty morsel right across — here just peeping over
the trailing pennywort, and there over-topped by the
lesser skull-cap — and then to compare it with the
more elegant trailing branches and delicate pale-blue
flowers of the normal plant which blossomed profusely
all round.

In addition to the plants mentioned we have
noticed white varieties of Raimnnilits ficaria,
Aipiilegia vulgaris, Viola caiiina, Polygala vulgat-is.
Geranium mollc, Erodium maritimiim, Sediim ajigli-
ciiin, Epilobium montanum, Valeriana officinalis,
Jasione montatia, Primula vulgaris, Polemonium
cceruleiim, Symphytum officinale, Myosotis palustris.
Digitalis purpurea, Veronica chamxdrys, Pedicularis
sylvatica. Thymus serpyllum. Prunella vulgaris,
Ajuga reptans.

This list is a very significant one, and, if Grant
Allen's theory of progressive colour development goes
for aught, argues conclusively a movement on retro-
gressive lines. It will be noticed that in this list, as
well as in the one submitted last month by E.
Armitage, only two plants with yellow flowers figure
as sporting into white. In his progressive colour-
scale, Mr. Allen gives yellow, white, red, purple,
lilac, mauve, violet, and blue ; white being an
improvement on the yellow, red on the white, etc.
Our two lists show a remarkable preponderance of
blue over the yellow, and of red over the blue,
driving one to the conclusion that as red is an im-
provement on white, and blue is the highest stage of
development, white variations from the type indicate
a retrogressive rather than a progressive development
of colouring-matter.

Of course these are merely a few suggestions. I
may be right or wrong in assuming the subject to be
of vital importance, or in objecting to the word
albinism being used in reference to this subject. I
may be equally right or wrong on the progressive or
retrogressive colour theory, or in my assumptions on
the oxidation of chromule, on the absence or presence
of certain elements in the pigment, or in the modi-
fication of the pigment cells. Be that as it may,
these suggestions may help to focus our attention,
and thereby enable us to deal practically with the
problem.

Pousanooth^ Perran-ar-worthal, Corn-wall.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

We have received a reprint from " Inventions,"
giving an account of Mr. James Nelson's ingenious
" Calculating Dial," as furnishing a ready means for
calculating figures in commercial business.

The celebrated collection of recent shells formed
by the late Sir David Barclay, Bart., was sold by
auction at Messrs. Stevens' Rooms, London, on the
6th of July and three following days. The catalogue
compiled by Mr. Hugh Fulton contained particulars
of 1,200 lots, which included a number of extremely
rai^e species, also many type specimens. The
following are some of the highest prices realised for
single specimens: — Voluta aulica, £^0% Murex
Barclayi, £<) 10s. ; Maiginella mi^-abilis, £6 \os. ;
Strombus taiirus, £^ los. ; Conus crocatus, £$ 10s. ;
Cyclostoma formosa, ^4 \os. ; Cyprcca bicallosa, £'},;
Scalaria decussata (two specimens), £^ ^s,

A DEEPLY thoughtful, and highly interesting
address is that of Dr. A. Leifius, delivered before
the Royal Society of New South Wales (London :
Kegan Paul & Co.).

Dr. J. E. Taylor has just published verbatim
the " Story of the Felixstowe Crags ".(illustrated), as
told by him to a public audience at Felixstowe on
Wednesday, July 29 (Ipswich : " East Anglian Daily
Times " Office, price sixpence).

The second quarterly number of " The Concholo-
gist " (edited by W. E. CoUings) is even better than
the first. It cannot fail to prove a welcome guest
among all interested in Conchological subjects.

The Report of the Botanical Exchange Club for
1890 (Manchester, Jas. Collins & Co., King St.)
is as valuable an accession to our botanical literature
as usual. No English botanist should be without it.

The third number of the " Mediterranean Natural-
ist " demonstrates that a welcome and useful periodical
has joined our ranks.

Dr. C. W. Riley's "Report of the Entomologist
for 1890," is even more readable and suggestive than
is usual with this distinguished entomologist's " Re-
ports."

The " Garner " is now amalgamated with the
" Naturalist's Gazette," and both in the new form
are published at one penny monthly.

We have received a most interesting and thought-
ful brochure, by F. Howard Collins, on "The
Diminution of the Jaw in Civilised Races, an Effect
of Disuse." Of course, the author refers to eating —
not to politics or " social " subjects.

Sir Geo. B. Airy, late Astronomer Royal, is the
doyen of British science. He has just entered his
ninety-first year, and appears to be as bright and
chippy as ever.

AVTER re-consideration the President of the Board
of Trade has granted a licence to the British Institute
of Preventive Medicine to register the institution as a
limited liability company with the omission of the
word " limited." The licence, however, is not to be

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

21

construed as expressing approval by Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach of experiments on animals, or in any
way aftecting the exercise by the Secretary of State
of his discretionary powers to grant or withhold a
vivisection licence to the proposed institute.

It is proposed to erect an observatory on top of
Mont Blanc. The idea originated with M. Janssen,
who stayed on the mountain some time last summer
for the purpose of making meteorological observations.
In conjunction with M. Eiffel (of tower fame), and
with the support of M. Bischoffsheim, Prince Roland
Bonaparte, and Baron Alfred de Rothschild, he has
now elaborated a plan which is as daring as the
Jungfrau railway. The obsei-vatory is to be entirely
of iron, and is to have a length of eighty-five feet and
a breadth of twenty feet. The iron roof is to have
the spherical form of an ironclad turret, which the
construction will much resemble. The erection of
such a building on the highest point of Mont Blanc
naturally involves thorough preliminary studies, with
which a Zurich engineer experienced in works on
high mountains has been charged by M. Eiffel and
M. Janssen.

We deeply regret having to record the death of
Mr. D. Mackintosh, F.G.S., whose work on "The
Scenery of England and Wales," is well known. It
was a pioneer work on the subject, although it
ascribed everything to marine denudation. Mr.
Mackintosh was also well known as a geological
lecturer.

" Technical Education " is all in the air. The
official people discussing it remind us of the Little
Room at Jerusalem.

A NEW Flux for iron has been brought out under
the name of Stephatiite. It includes aluminum with
the iron in a chemical combination, and is said to
render the iron harder than the hardest steel.

M. BOUTOUX has found there are five species of
plant fungi, and three of bacteria present during the
fermentation of bread. The bacteria operate on the
gluten.

We are sorry to record the death of an early
contributor to our columns, that of the genial natural-
ist Dr. Thos. Allcock of Manchester, in his sixty-ninth
year.

MICROSCOPY.

New Slides.— Mr. Abraham Flatters, of Open-
shaw, Manchester, sends us four botanical slides,
which for clean-cut sections and definite staining and
good mounting are among the best we have examined.
All botanical students are aware that a well-mounted
section of the organs of plants is worth a thousand
pictures of the same, as regards their power of im-
pression. Mr. Flatter's slides are as follows : section
of the ovary of Lilhim croceum, 2-inch object ; leaf-

bud of ash {Fraxinus excelsior), 2-inch object, and
spot ; trans-section of leaf-bud of sycamore {Acer
pscudoplatanus), 2-inch object ; trans-section of ovary
oi Iris Germanica, 2-inch object. Mr. Flatters is a
working man — one of the ardent and enthusiastic
working-men naturalists for which Lancashire has
always been famous. We hope, therefore, the fact of
our calling attention to his capital slides will be a
source of encourasjement.

ZOOLOGY.

A Link with the Trilobites. — Four or five sea
scorpions have recently been placed in two of the
tanks in the fish-house at the Zoological Gardens.
The creature is better known as King Crab {Limuliis),
but the first name is more appropriate. It is really a
marine representation of the scorpions in the insect-
house, and is not a crab at all ; but unlike them it
cannot sting, although the long spine in which its
body terminates is the precise equivalent of the
venomous sting of the scorpion. If the sea scorpions
find their surroundings sufficiently congenial, they
may, perhaps, lay eggs and hatch out young. This
would be a very desirable event, for the young of
this animal are curiously like some of the extinct
Trilobites.

BOTANY.

The Tii Plant of Tahiti. — In an interesting
work entitled " Tahiti, the Garden of the Pacific,"
by Dora Hort, published by T. Fisher Unwin, there
appears the following account of some peculiar
properties of the above plant. Perhaps some of the
readers of Science-Gossip may be able to furnish a
satisfactory explanation of the power possessed by
this plant in deadening the heat emitted from fire.

" The leaf of the Tii possesses the mysterious
power of quelling the heat usually emitted from
flames of fire. At an early period of Tahitian history
this property was only known to the idolatrous priests,
who made use of their knowledge to assist in the
performance of miracles which would not bear too
close scrutiny. Standing by the marais, they held
branches of the Tii plants, which rendered them
imperviable to the fiery tongue of flame by which
they were surrounded. Captain Blackett related to
me a ceremony he had witnessed some years pre-
viously at one of the Leeward Islands. A procession
of natives bearing branches of the plant in question,
waved them from side to side as they walked with
bare feet and legs over red-hot stones, and through
fiery flames without any injury whatever to their naked
limbs. Captain Blackett, after having watched their
mode of proceeding, was convinced that waving the
branches they carried counteracted in some way the
effect of the heat, which he undertook to test in his

214

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

own person, Divestinghimself of shoes and stockings,
he tucked up his trousers, and imitating the others
with regard to the Tii plant, he passed in a similar
manner through the fire without experiencing the
slightest inconvenience from the flames, which he
said played about his bare legs." — J. F. Crannvick.

Mercurialis perennis.— At page 179 of
Science-Gossip for the present month, Mercurialis
perennis is written of as "sometimes eaten as a
vegetable," surely this is a mistake, the plant is very
poisonous, and it is well to caution your readers
against eating it ; the plant eaten as spinach is the
Mercury Goose-Foot, Chenopodiuvi Bonus Hcnricus,
belonging to the order Chenopodiace?e, which contains
many edible species, as orach, spinach, and beet. —
y. yejiner Weir.

Abnormal Scabious. — I enclose a specimen
of scabious herewith, as it has none of the usual
compressed central florets on its disk. It may be
useful as an example of defective development. —
R. Ashingtoit Bullen.

Var. of Lilium auratum. — Amongst a large
number of flowers of Lilium auratum last year, I
saw one which struck me as being rather peculiar ;
instead of the stigmas and styles being united in their
whole length, there was one style with its stigma
distinctly separate, and the other two had their styles
separate but were united by their stigmas. Is such a
case, may I ask, of rare occurrence? I preserved
the specimen in spirit. While writing this may I ask
what is the best book for a beginner on the study of
worms (Vermes) ? — Eldon Pratt.

Archeology and Plant Traditions. — In an
address given during an excursion of the Essex Field
Club on August 8, Dr. J. E. Taylor made some
remarks, to which we invite the attention of archseo-
logical botanists. Speaking of their folklore, he said
.that many of the traditions concerning them were the
common property of Norwegian, "-Danish, German,
French, English, Spanish, Russian, Hungarian, and
other countries, and he expressed his belief that
these traditions were of Aryan origin, older even than
the evolution of European languages, and that they
were possibly distributed all over Europe during the
great Aryan emigration. In this way he connected
the popular names and folklore of common plants
with ethnological history.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Romano-British Camps. — At a meeting of the
Bournemouth Natural History Society at Badbury
Rings, near Wimborne, on June 27th, 1891, Dr.
Crespi, of Wimborne, 'said the whole neighbourhood
was deeply interesting to the antiquary ; Badbury,
the Castle Hill at Cranborne, and Dudsbury were a few
of the most interesting. Several questions of import-
ance would call for brief enquiry. These were : Who

constructed these camps ? why were they formed ?
and what was the condition of the country at the
time? Badbury was puzzling. The Rings consist of
three bold and almost perfect embankments and three
ditches ; they are circular, cover eighteen acres, and
have two entrances, facing respectively east and west.
The innermost ring is often said to be Keltic, the
middle Roman, and the external Saxon or Anglo-
Saxon ; the extreme circumference is 1,738 yards.
Of the history of Badbury nothing is really known
except that, according to the "Saxon Chronicle" of
A.D. 901, the year of Alfred's death, his son and
successor, Edward the Elder, held it, while his
kinsman and rival Ethelwald was posted at Wim-
borne. Ethelwald, after stating that he would either
live or die at Wimborne, stole off by night to join the
Danes and Mercians in Northumbria. There is no
evidence that Badbury was the Mons Badonicus of
the early chroniclers. Few remains of interest have
been found at or near Badbury itself, with the excep-
tion of some coins — one, however, a beautiful gold
one, pieces of pottery, three swords, and a few bones.
The objection to Badbury, or rather the middle ring,
being a Roman encampment is that the Romans
usually constructed nearly square camps, with four
entrances, one in the middle of each of the four
faces ; but it did not follow that the Romans might
not have occupied Badbury for a time, utilising the
fortifications which they found here. To leave
Badbury and give a glance at other equally huge
earthworks in the neighbourhood of Wimborne, their
enormous size and the vast labour implied in throwing
them up, must not be overlooked. One could not
avoid the conclusion that the population of the
district must have been very large, not that of the
whole country, a widely different matter, but that of
the districts in which the camps are formed. General
Pitt Rivers agrees in this opinion, and believes that
in an age when much of the land was swampy, or
covered with dense and almost impenetrable primae-
val forests, dry downs would offer great attractions of
residence, and that the inhabitants would need only to
protect exposed parts, the forests or the rivers and
swamps sufficiently defending the other sides. Some
light. Dr. Crespi concluded, was thrown on the inhabi-
tants of the region by the discoveries made by General
Pitt Rivers ; most of the skeletons recently exhumed
at Rotherly being exceedingly small, the males ave-
raging 5ft. I "Sin., the females 4ft. 9in., while the
Anglo-Saxon skeletons at Winkelbury average for
males 5ft. 6'9 in., and the females 5ft. 2*3 in.
Some bronze age skeletons found by General Pitt
Rivers were of greater stature than the Anglo-Saxon
ones at Winkelbury. The almost entire absence of
round-headedness showed that a Roman strain was
rare among the people of the district. To sum up,
so little is at present known of the conditions of life
and of the people of the region, where most of the
huge camps, which give such interest to the district,
were constructed, that it is necessary to speak with
very great reserve, so that there is still the widest
possible latitude for the imagination. It is conse-
quently not astonishing that the highest authorities
do not agree. One thing is clear, that many of these
immense fortifications were thrown up after the
departure of the Romans, and the proof of this
important fact is that vast numbers of Roman coins
are found in the embankments often many feet below
the top of them, so that they must have been thrown
up with the earth with which the fortifications are
made ; others may be far more ancient than Roman
times. Future explorations may lead to important
discoveries, particularly at Badbury, which has in
great measure escaped the researches of Archaeologists.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

215

Squirrels in Winter.— To doubt that ihe
squirrel hibernates, because it is not infrequently seen
abroad in the winter, appears to me rather like
questioning whether bats are strictly nocturnal, on
the strength of the few notes recently inserted in
Science-Gossip relative to their flying in sunlight.
This last occurrence, by the way, is far more common
than any of the correspondents who have sent their
observations, seem to suppose. I believe no summer
passes without my seeing instances of it. At times,
a bat will be noticed for several successive days,
hawking round the same spot in the brightest hours
of sunshine. As to the squirrel, I am well aware
that he may be seen in every month of the year ; but
the marked absence of regularlity in his winter
appearances can only, I think, be explained by still
considering him to a certain extent a hibernant. In
a wooded country frequented by squirrels, a person
who has observed their habits can visit them any day
he pleases throughout the summer months, with little
fear of failing to find them at home. The litter which
a squirrel makes under the tree wherein his daily
meal is despatched is quite prodigious ; so that even
a casual walk through the grove tells you in what
trees squirrels have been recently feeding ; and where
the fragments are freshest, a squirrel will be found.
But of course you must go at his meal-time. The
hour of his afternoon repast is from 3.30 to 4.30, and
during that period the squirrel's acquaintance can be
cultivated ad libitum. Day after day you will find
him in the same tree — a larch if it be x\ugust, a
beech if it be September — crunching the cones of the
one or the mast of the other, and pelting the
fragments down upon you as you sprawl on the sward
beneath. I have spent many a pleasant half-hour in
receipt of these attentions. In winter, you come
across the squirrel by chance, or stumble upon traces
of a squirrel feast (under Scotch firs generally) fresh
enough to inform you that a squirrel has been there
not longer ago than yesterday afternoon. But go to
the spot to-morrow, and you will find the very same
patch of fragments, only less fresh ; not in the least
augmented by further chippings. Or go where you
met the squirrel himself, and if you expect to meet
him again you are more than likely to be disap-
pointed. Why, then, cannot the squirrel be traced
in winter as well as in summer? I think we may
answer, because the squirrel only occasionally wakes
up to life in the winter, and the fact that he has
dined once in such or such a tree is no indication of a
likelihood of his returning thereto. Yet I am far
from questioning that these frequent interruptions of
the squirrel's torpidity may indicate a gradual dying
out of the hiberuatory habit. If I may speak from
the local conditions of my own neighbourhood, where
squirrels for the past twelvemonth have been some-
what common (result of some spontaneous migration)
no animal could have less need to hibernate.
Abundance of food surrounds him at all seasons.
Indeed, it is worth mentioning that at least one
favourite squirrel-food, the larch-cone, is never out of .
season. I can give a curious proof of this. During
the latter part of last August, 1890, all the squirrels
about here seemed to be feeding exclusively on the
green larch-cones. It is now August 5th, and the
squirrels are nearly all feeding on the old brown larch-
cones, remnants of the same crop that afforded them
food a year ago. This is not because the green cones
are not ready ; for as long ago as July 12, the
squirrels about Bray, Co. Wicklow, were devouring the
green larch-cones, and the cones here are as forward
as those at Bray. It is therefore plain that one crop
of larch-cones continues to be good feeding for more
than a whole year. The squirrel, of course, will at

frequent seasons desert the larches for other forms of
food ; during the whole of September, and greater
part of October he seems to subsist entirely on beech-
mast ; in winter he loves haws and pine-cones, in
spring the tender shoots of the spruce. But, when-
ever he is hard up, he has an unfailing friend in the
larch ; and therefore, if the squirrels in this part of
Ireland have need to hibernate, it is from some
different cause than that usually assigned, the scarcity
of food.— C. B. Moffat, B ally hy land, Co. Wexford.

Grapes in the Open Air. — F. Y. wishes to ask
the scientific reason for exposing hot-house grapes to
the night air, for the purpose of colouring them.

CONCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S JOURNAL. — As a

member of the Conchological Society, may I venture
to suggest that the numbers are much damaged
for neat binding by the quantity of glue which is
used on the backs ; they are pinned as well, and in
most cases the pins would be sufficient, and ensure
neat binding afterwards. I bind my own magazines
(as an amateur), therefore I speak practically on the
subject. — Alary Heitla7id.

Optical Effect. — The " black branched object
which has been popularly likened to the ramifications
of the brain" is known as the "figure of Purkinje."
Besides being produced in the manner described by
H. J. I., the phenomena may be quite as easily
noticed by bringing a sli;,'ht pressure to bear on the
eyeball. It is purely a mechanical effect, and is easily
explained. Rays of light falling on the eye impinge
on the anterior part of the retina, pierce the layer of
ramifying fibres of the optic nerve, and the whole
strata of the retina, and then act on the bacillaiy
layer, which is composed of minute structures termed
rods and cones. In the experiment described by H.
J. I., the vision becomes yellowish-red, and is
peculiarly marked by dark ramifications which really
indicate the branches of the retinal artery. The eye,
it will be noticed is directed to the darkest part of the
room, while the candle is so held that the light falls
on the retina at a slanting angle. This shows up the
" branched object," which is none other than the rami-
fying blood-vessels intervening between the rays of
light, and the bacillary or sensitive layer behind.
The experiment depends entirely for its success on a
slow movement of the candle. This stopped, the
figures disappear.— 7^r^^. H. Davey.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others.— We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To OUR Recent Exchangers. — We are willing to be helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

210

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

C. PlTHER. — Soak the furniture well with common petro-
leum. The objects are undoubtedly eggs of some species of
mite. Sopping with petroleum is the most likely thing we
know to get rid of them. We shall be glad to hear if any of
our readers know of anything more inseciicidal.

H. L. T. — SciENCK-GossiP has a large circulation outside
the United Kingdom — larger than that of any other scientific
journal.

A. Flatters. — We have received your two excellent mounts
of transverse sections of Liliutn croceum, and leaf-bud of ash.
Both are very instructive specimens.

John Cookson. — "The Naturalist's Gazette" was pub-
lished by Mr. Allen, 4 Ave Maria Lane, E.G., subs. id.
monthly. It is now united with "The Garner."

R. M. W. — The worms are not the young of the common
earth-worm, but of the species known as " brandlings."

H. G. Sadler. — Dr. Aveling's book will help you.
Messer's "New Method of Diagnosis" (Allen & Co., Water-
loo Place) will help you more.

K. A. D. — We shall be pleased to have your paper.

A Subscriber. — By some means your flower was not en-
closed. We have waited, thinking it had been inadvertently
left out. The best means of verifying grasses and sedges
would be to consult a herbarium at some museum ; or, failing
that, Sowerby's " Botany," at some free reference library.

Rev. B. Whitelock and D. H. S. Stewart. — We are
much obliged for the abnormal examples of Geum and Salix
alba sent. They are very suggestive objects.

G. E. M. — We frequently get applications for another
" General Index " of Science-Gossip, since the last issued in
1876. The expense, however, is too great unless we were
guaranteed a number. Although we are aware there is no
Cyclopaedia of Natural History in the world equal to the
twenty-five volumes of Science-Gossip, all purchasers do not
bind the volumes, and therefore a " General Index " hangs.

H. E. Griset. — Stark's " British Mosses" (coloured plates),
price 7J. 6d.,&nd Dr. M. C. Cooke's "British Fungi" (coloured
plates), price 6s. <

R. CouPAR. — Apply to Messrs. Macmillan for Professor
Marshall-Ward's book on the "Diseases of Timber." It is
published, we believe, in the " Nature Series," price 2s. 6d.

EXCHANGES.

Wright's "Animal Life," Woodward's "Geology of Eng-
land and Wales," Lyell's "Student's Geology," Mantell's
" Excursions," offered in exchange for silver coins, &c. — W. J.
Weston, Beckley, Sussex.

Wanted, unmounted material, diatoms, forams, polycistines,
&c., in exchange for choice micro-slides of every description.
Foreign correspondence solicited. — Suter, 5 Highweek Road,
Tottenham, Middlesex.

Offkred, South African bird-skins of any order, in fine
condition, correctly named and with data, in exchange for
named bird-skins of any country but South Africa. — J. G.
Brown, North End, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Offered, Frosojieas holosericum, Opeas clavulinum, Bult-
viinus glaiidulus, B. tenuiliratus, B. camarotiis, Clausilia
corticina, Pupina compacta, Lagodiscus ciliferum, L. trochu-
lus, Cydophorus Zollitigeri, Opistophorus corniculum, Cyclotus
opalinus, Leptopoma ostrea, Ampkidromiis /urcillaius, hom.
Java, in exchange for foreign helices, &c. — G. K. Gude,
5 Giesbach Road, Upper HoUoway, N.

Natural history specimens. Numerous herbarium speci-
mens of rare British alpine flowering plants, mosses, ferns,
lichens, marine algse, &c., or land and freshwater shells and
other natural history specimens for exchange. Further par-
ticulars sent to any one willing to exchange foreign land shells
for the afore-mentioned. — T. Rogers, M.C.S., 27 Oldham
Road, Manchester.

British and European lepidoptera wanted, especially noc-
tual. Will give in exchange fine and large North American
butterflies and moths. — Chas. S. Westcott, box 167, Merchant-
ville, N.J., Camden Co., U.S.A.

Wanted, fossils from the Stonesfield slate. Lower Oolite,
especially echini and cidaris. Offered, fossils from Gault,
Thanet sands, &c.— Fredk. Stanley, M.C.S., Margate.

Wanted, living specimens of dragonflies, larvae, ova, &c. ;
also parts of insects, wings, &c. State what required in
exchange to— H. D. G., 16 Wandle Road, Croydon, Surrey.

A MEMBER of the Conchological Society wishes to correspond
with collectors residing abroad. Good series of duplicates,
including many North-West American. Lists exchanged. —
H. L., 270 Uttoxeter Road, Derby.

Offered, Science-Gossip for 1887-91, to date, unbound,
clean, "Tales of the Wars," Tacitus "Annals," "Anecdotes
of Napoleon,' Bret Harte's "Poems," O. W. Holmes'
"Poems," "Alton Locke," " Hypatia," " Dombey and Son,"
" Vanity Fair," "Old Mortality," " Tom Brown's Schooldays,"
"Chambers' Miscellany," and others. Wanted, British eggs
or butterflies. Send lists to — Mollis, Manthorpe Road,
Grantham.
Offered, fine specimens of Donax scortum, from Burma.

What offers in British shells, or others?— Mrs. Heitland, The
Priory, Shrewsbury.

Botanical slides wanted, mounted sections, &c., useful for
class work. A packet of good unmounted material from New
Zealand will be given in exchange for each slide. — W. A. Gain,
Tuxford, Newark.

Wanted, foreign stamps in exchange for minerals, fossils,
shells, and botanical objects, &c. — F. Cartwright, 20 Eldoa
Street, C.-on-M., Manchester.

Wanted, side-blown eggs— skylark, tits, rooks, hawks,
warblers, and many others, in exchange for rare species, some
in clutches with nests, and with data.— I. Ellison, Steckton,
Keoghley.

Offered, "Northern Microscopist," eighteen numbers,
July 1882, to December 1883 ; also " Selbome Magazine," first
eighteen numbers, January 1888, to June 1889, all perfect and
clean as published. Wanted, other scientific books, or good
micro, material, or slides. — Amos, x^ Alfred Street, Bath.

Can offer rare British shells in return for coal ferns, good
rock and diatom mounts, rare stamps, stamp album, or books
on natural history, in good condition. — T. E. Sclater, Bank
Street, Teignmouth, Devonshire.

Will give 150 polished geological cabinet specimens of
Devonian corals and sponges, valued from \s. and upwards, for
a good microscope, with its appliances. Will also exchange
similar specimens for opera-glass, or a secondhand old-fashioned
watch that will keep time.— A. J. R. Sclater, M.C.S., 23 Bank
Street, Teignmouth.

Will exchange the following sets of eggs for others not in
collection : two sets missel thrush, each containing four eggs ;
two sets kestrels, four and five eggs ; two sets common sand-
pipers, four eggs ; and three eggs of common gull.— J. Hume,
34 Burdon Terrace, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Wanted, offers for a few Canadian silurian fossils, as well as-
some English from chalk, flint, &c. ; also Nicholson's "Palae-
ontology," Mantell's "Wonders of Geology," and Woodward's
"Mollusca." — J. A. Floyd, 5 Hospital Road, Bury-St.-
Edmunds.

What offers for a nuinber of text and guide-books for th&
London University Matriculation Examination. List sent.—
H. P., 103 Camden Street, London, N.W.

Glazed mahogany insect cabinet, eight drawers, quite new,
cost joj. Will exchange to value for British birds' eggs,
especially sea birds ; clutches preferred. — W. H. Killick,
Eastbourne, Midhurst.

Wanted, glass-topped boxes, round or square, suitable for
mounting fragile and small shells.— Thomas W. Reader, 171
Hemingford Road, Barnsbury, London, N.

Duplicates. — Suspecta, lonicerae (bred), ulmata, arcuosa ;
also fine varieties of guillemot eggs. Desiderata : eggs, shells,
and insects. — W. Hewett, 13 Howard Street, York.

Wanted, perfect specimens of mole-crickets, field-crickets,
and wood-crickets, also blatta and British-caught locusts.
Duplicates numerous, including P. ziridissima, P. brachy-
ptertis, L. biguitaius, Sympetrum vulgatum, P. mackaon,.
L. sinapis, L. ritamni, A. adippe, paphia, Selene enphrosyne,
S. semele, C. typhon, N. lucina, E. Jacobeea, V. atalnnta,
V. to, V. cardui, &c. — W. Harcourt Bath, Ladywood,
Birmingham.

Offered, accumulation of dried plants, including T/uilict.
saxat., Seseli liban., Drosera angl., Clal. fnarisc, Monstr.
hypo., Aspid. thetyp., &c. Wanted, Science-Gossip for 1888,.
i8go, and 1891, books, or offers for whole lot. — G. H. Bryan,
Thornlea, Cambridge.

I SHALL be pleased to communicate with anyone interested
in conchology. — G. E. Leville, Cross Bank, Waterhead,
Oldham.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.

"The Right Hand : Left-Handedness," by Sir Daniel Wilsoii
(London: Macmillan). — "The Telescope," by Joseph W.
Williams (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.). — "The Micro-
scope."—" The American Monthly Micro. Journal." — "Ameri-
can Naturalist." — " Canadian Entomologist." — " The Natu-
ralist."— The Botanical Gazette." — " The Gentleman's Maga-
zine."—"The Midland Naturalist."— "The Essex Naturalist."
— "The Garner and Naturalist's Gazette." — " Feuille des
Jeunes Naturalistes." — "Mediterranean Naturalist." — "Jour-
nal of Microscopy," &c., &c.

Communications received up to the i2Th ult. from :
R. C. P.— A. B.— J. W.— H. D. G.— W. J. W.— T. W. S.—
W. T. L.— F. G. K.— E. P.— C. S. H.— T. R.— E. K. G.—
H. D.-U. J. W.— F. S.— A. F.— W. H. B.— T. E. L.—
H. W. P.— C. N.— J. M. N. C— J. H.— J. A. F.— W. H. M. K.
— T. W. R.— M. E. P.— A. v.— D. K.— H. L. T.— J. H. G.
— W. H.— M. B. W.— A. S. T.— J. W. H.— S. L. M.— J. A.—
C. P. G.— M. H. M.— J. W. P.— R. G. M.— M. D.— J. J. W.
—A. v.— C. M. B.— J. H. G.— J. E.— F. C— W. A. G.—
M. H.— F. H. D.-C. D. R.— H. L. T.— A. H.— J. F. C—
W. W.-R. A. B.— T. E. S.— A. J. R. S.-&C., &c.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-G OSSJF.

217

NOTES FOR WINTER WORK.

Some Aspects of Scientific Association.

I&, 1^^^^^}. EMBERSHIP of a

S:ff&' °.is\'>^7il5 ' society established

for the purpose of
promoting research
and diflusingknow-
ledge in some
branch of science,
possesses so many
advantages that
one is apt to over-
look the obliga-
tions imposed by
it, as well as the
special character
of the benefits to
be derived from it.
It is useful from
time to time to
revert to the con-
sideration of these ;
and if in the re-
marks which follow there is nothing strikingly novel,
or eminently sensational, I would venture to remind
my readers of a statement to be found somewhere in
Hannah Moore's works, to the effect that though the
office of a reminder is more humble than that of an
instructor, it is often quite as necessary.

One of the first things we are prone to overlook
is that our rights, as members of a society, are
indissolubly linked to certain definite obligations.
In this respect we do not differ from the general
body of mankind. All men insist more strenuously
on the maintenance of their rights, or what they take
to be their rights, than they do on the observance of
the obligations which those rights inevitably imply.
Take the simple instance of the right to speak freely
in support of any particular view ; it carries with it
the obligation to be deferential, and observant of
that degree of courtesy which is perfectly consistent
with the most zealous advocacy of our opinions. I
write with special reference to the smaller natural
No. 322.— October 1891.

history and microscopical societie?, and field-clubs
which do so much good wherever they are established.
It is not unusual in such associations to hear the
complaint made by some of the more critical
members that subjects are brought forward without
due regard to the attainments and proficiency of the
general body of subscribers ; or, as I myself have
heard it expressed, that science is made to put on
"too much side." It is undoubtedly the right of
members to claim that matters shall be put before
them in such a way as will be best calculated to
benefit the majority ; that is, in interesting language,
and in terms which the majority may comprehend.
It is only in this way that societies can be kept
together, and science be made even more popular than
it is already. But the right indicated runs in double
harness, so to speak, with a distinct, but often
disregarded obligation. It is assuredly the duty
of those who attend the meetings of scientific
societies to bring with them a certain amount of
preparedness, and beforehand to familiarise them-
selves with points which are likely to be discussed ;
or, where this cannot be done for want of books or
for other reasons, to consult a friend who may be
able to render the required aid. No scientific
society can be reasonably required to supplement the
want of all preparation on the part of its members.

Closely related to the matters just considered is the
suggestion sometimes made that simplicity of subjects
rather than of phraseology is needed, meaning
thereby that elementary objects and methods should
be more frequently dealt with. Now this is a point
on which there is ample room for opinions to differ ;
but without entering into any lengthy discussion of
these, it is obviously the duty of every member of a
society to educate himself up to the level of his
fellow-members. Half the pleasure and the profit of
taking up with a hobby and joining a society, lie in
the fact that one has mainly to educate himself, and
thereby to undergo a certain amount of self-imposed
discipline. It is not felt to be a discipline at all,

L

2l8

HARD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSS IF.

because it is the spontaneous answer of our whole
being to an appeal from its better and higher side ;
but it none the less serves to develop, exercise, and
instruct, by methods more or less systematic, the
faculties which we possess. To that extent, at least,
it is a discipline, and has its moral aspects.

Again, at the bottom of these suggestions to
simplify phraseology, and to deal with elementary
subjects, there often lurks a fundamental misconcep-
tion as to the function of education. Every system
of education — whether it prevail in schools set apart
for pupils of tender years, or in those societies with
which we associate ourselves, and which are the
schools of our later life — must communicate some
information in the form of facts and figures ; but is it
not the highest function of any such system to put us
in the way of getting facts for ourselves, and of
arranging, methodising, and utilising them ? Looked
at from this point of view, it seems difficult to over-
rate the good which scientific societies are capable of
doing. It will be for some future historian to
estimate the influence which has been, and is being
thus exercised in making our age what it is. Mean-
while, before we venture to criticise the work of any
society, would it not be prudent to ascertain whether
or not it is discharging the higher rather than the
lower function of education ?

Reference was made a few lines above to the
moral aspects of membership. Though to dilate on
the theme would be to exceed the limits we have
set ourselves, this phase of our subject cannot be
overlooked. A simple instance, one which may be
within the experience of some who read this paper,
will suffice. You are an enthusiastic member of the
microscopical society of the town in which you
reside. You have just purchased, or a friend has
lent you, one of Moller's splendid type slides ; and
you take it down to the next meeting with your
microscope and lamp. You carefully arrange every-
thing, and have at last secured that degree of
light in which the skilled diatomist loves to exhibit
his favourites ; when another member, who is to
read a paper, asks you to lend him your lamp for
the evening, as he has forgotten to bring one. He
is the " foolish virgin " of the assembly, and his
thoughtlessness, it may even be his habitual careless-
ness, obliges him to impose on your goodnature.
Unless you act as the " wise virgins " of the parable
did, your evening seems likely to be spoiled in order
that your rosy-gilled acquaintance should not lose
the iclat of the meeting. Common courtesy, how-
ever, prompts you to lend your lamp cheerfully.
And it is chiefly out of our little unremembered acts
of charity and goodwill that the best side of our
complex human nature is built up. Membership of
a society constantly demands self-sacrifice in a
thousand ways. It does so when it requires you to
give up some engagement to attend a meeting, to
hear a paper read on a subject in which perhaps you

do not take a deep interest, but which you know
has cost its writer much self-imposed time and
trouble. You do not like to read your own papers
to empty chairs ; your sympathy is thus aroused, and
you act rightly in giving up your other engagement
for your meeting. Whether in or outside of societies,
the benefit to be derived by one's self is obviously
by no means the highest motive for well-doing ; but
in considering the moral results which flow from the
loyal observance of the duties incidental to member-
ship, we cannot in the present connection disregard
their effects in the direction of developing sympathy.
It sometimes seems to me that our scientific
societies may in certain respects discharge for their
members some of the functions which were fulfilled
by religious orders in the past. Those who in olden
times donned the cowl and garb of the monks,
derived good, depend on it, from the self-restraint
they must have had to exercise again and again,
when they found themselves associated with
companions not of their own choice, and whose
characters may in many instances have seemed
utterly unlovable. I think it is Thomas a Kempis
who suggests something about the discipline which
was thus imposed on one who entered an order.
The morning has widened ; our day is brighter than
his was ; our comrades are mainly of our own choice .:
the scope and aims of the societies we join, and are
now gossiping about, differ widely from those which
were assembled in the old abbeys ; but, thank God,
we are still human beings, and not the least good
derivable from our scientific societies is to be found
in the courtesy which we are required to exercise,
and in the self-restraint and self-sacrifice which it
often involves. If we thus learn something about
others, we should surely in such a position learn still
more about ourselves.

W. J. Simmons.
Calcutta.

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES.

\Co7itinued from p. 203.]
NATURE AROUND A COVERT.

THE particular spot which I shall dwell upon in
this paper, is a covert, or preserve for foxes.
It is distant from the village in which I write this,
about a mile and a half. In the winter-time this spot
is the frequent resort of the nearest pack of foxhounds ;
otherwise the place is hardly ever frequented by any
footsteps save those of the keeper, who sometimes
visits it in the course of his rounds. The covert (at
the east and north sides) is situated close to the road,
which, however, is not much frequented by either
people on foot, or in carts, so nature is left much to'
herself during the greater part of the year ; though
the place in winter-time sometimes resounds with the
blows of the axe or bill of the woodcutters, who

HARD WICKE' S S CIENCE- G O SSI P.

219

come to cut up a portion of the oldest wood at times.
This covert, which is called "Christmas Gorse," is
probably over twenty acres in extent, which is for
the most part covered with blackthorn, and large
hawthorn bushes, brambles, furze and young oaks,
while fir-trees are planted near the outsides, and in
other places of the covert. For the observation of
■wild bird-life, the place is unrivalled any where for
miles around.

Situated in the covert is a large roosting-place for
starlings, which come trooping into the place every
evening by thousands, and returning back in the
morning to their accustomed feeding-groimds. It is
an interesting sight to watch them coming in to
roost. From all directions for miles around the
starlings keep coming in every minute by hundreds
and thousands, and each flock as it comes in wheels
and hovers over the place selected and then darts
do\v"n and settles for the night.

The air above the roost presents a very animated
appearance, hundreds settling down every minute,
and thousands coming in to take their place, while
those that are settled make a loud chattering noise,
which is kept up till dark, and can be heard a long
way off. The noise of those that are settled is like a
high wind in the tops of the trees, and when they
rise suddenly, it is like the noise of distant thunder.
These birds crowd together so thickly that they
appear to be on top of one another, and the tall
blackthorns and hawthorns are in some places com-
pletely bent and broken to the ground by their
weight. Thousands, if not millions make it their
nightly roosting-place.

Occasionally there is to be observed among this
mass of birds which frequent this place, an individual
with a snowy-white plumage.

The time of the coming in of these birds at night,
and the going out in the morning is regulated
according to the season of the year. In the depth of
winter they begin to arrive at the covert about half
past three, and sometimes earlier in the afternoon,
going out in the morning about eight. They do not
come out in the same way as they go in, i.e., in large
compact masses, but are scattered out over the
country in long straggling lines.

It is also very interesting to watch the numerous
flocks which pass over this village, in the afternoon
or evening, as they are on their way to roost. The
smaller companies sometimes settle in some tree,
where they exert their voices, and create a very
pleasing and lively appearance in the surroundings.
They wait till some larger flight of starlings appears,
which settles for a moment to receive the contingent,
and then with a loud whirring of wings and the
execution of various manceuvres, they betake them-
selves off in the direction of their roosting-place,
though probably they are recruited on their way by
several small companies of their species. As these
birds go over sometimes in large flocks containing

many thousands, and reaching a quarter of a mile or
more in length, we may suppose that these vast flocks
are collected by the smaller parties continually join-
ing them from the surrounding feeding-grounds for a
great distance around, as they go homewards. These
birds frequent the fields in small companies during
the day, though several parties often unite together,
but they generally soon separate and go off again in
various directions.

Occasionally in wandering near their roost we
may pick up a dead starling or two with fine glossy
plumage, while many pairs of wings and skeletons
hang about in the tall blackthorns, and the numerous
small heaps of feathers on the ground plainly show
that many of these birds are killed by the numerous
birds of prey which frequent the place. Hawks and
tawny owls haunt the covert, and breed around.
Magpies are very common here and may be seen in
spring in small numbers of about six together, and
once I counted twenty-two as they flew from a
meadow into the covert. They build and breed
abundantly in the tall hawthorn and blackthorn
bushes, in the more inaccessible parts. Pheasants
and partridges abound and build among the long
grass. Ring-doves breed in the fir-trees abundantly
in April and May, and are so common around here,
that large flocks of twenty, thirty, or sixty, and even
more may be seen early in the year, flying or feeding
in the meadows around. The lapwings breed un-
molested in the damp meadows near at hand, where
their curious flight can be seen and familiar cry
heard. Blackbirds and thrushes sing without hin-
drance from morning till night ; and the beautiful jay
makes its home here and breeds in the fir-trees. The
smaller kinds of wild birds, the crested wren, willow
wren, coletit, tomtit, great-tit, white-throat, night-
ingale, and several others, live and breed undisturbed
in this secluded spot.

In April and May, the soft cooing of the ring-
doves, and the soft tremulous cooing of the turtle-
doves, sounds sweetly from the fir-trees. The
nightingale, our sweetest songster, may be heard pour-
ing forth its thrilling notes in the daytime and in
the evening, when the other denizens of the air and
woods have retired to rest. From without the
covert, the sweet voice of the cuckoo and the loud
ringing cry of the green woodpecker can be heard.

In spring and summer, the covert is clothed in
floral beauty. Snowdrops may be gathered here in
early spring, and later on the flowers of the tormem-
til, dog-violet, and forget-me-not cover the ground
in the open places. Large bunches of furze give
qrtite an attraction to the place with their bright
golden flowers. The blackthorn bushes show quit^
white at a distance, and contrast beautifully with the.
bright and fresh green leaves on the hawthorn
bushes which are scattered promiscuously here and
there. The beautiful flowers of the wild columbine
grow at the top of the covert near the road. The

L 2

220

HA RD WICKB' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

common broom also grows abundantly in a spinny
close at hand.

The meadows around are decked in spring and
summer with cowslips, primrose, scabious, sneeze-
wort, yarrow, lesser stitchwort, early purple orchis,
wood anemones, common meadow-sweet, water-
dropwort, common burnet, lady-smock, and others.

The footpath to the covert leads through meadows
with waving grass, decked with beautiful but
common wild-flowers ; ragged robins are scattered
here and there in the tall grass, with white oxeyes,
and large patches of yellow bedstraw, purple vetch,
and bird's-foot trefoil growing near together, mixed
with yellow rattles, hawkweeds, red and white clover,
with others nearly hidden from sight in the long
grass. The large waving flowers of the yellow iris,
marsh-marigold, water-speedwell, water-foi-get-me-
not, water-figwort, wild columbine, rock-rose,
and willow-herbs, etc., grow along the brook which
runs just by the covert.

Many of the trees by the brook-side bear the
marks of the woodpecker's strong bill,' where it lays
its eggs, and the tree-sparrow builds its nest in one of
the holes made by the woodpecker. Furze-chats also
build their nests on the ground at the bottom of
furze bushes, in the meadows around, and the black-
headed bunting, sedge- warbler, and long- tailed tit,
live and breed along this brook undisturbed.

RARE BIRDS SEEN OR SHOT IN THE NEIGHBOUR-
HOOD OF NORTH MARSTON, BUCKS.

A few years ago, a red-legged partridge was seen
on Quainton Hills by Mr. John Anstiss, who (I
believe) almost stepped on it when it was on its nest.
In the summer of 1889 a bird about the size of a
blackbird, and somewhat resembling it in form was
killed in the grass, in the field close to the moat at
Hogshaw. It was of the colour of a young starling
on the head, back, wings, and tail, while under the
chin and throat, it was of a whitish colour. Mr.
John Hughes, the owner of the field, said it must be
an uncommon bird, for he had not seen one like it
before. I am convinced that it was a female ring-
ousel, but as I did not examine it myself I could not
be sure at the time. Perhaps some reader might
have an idea what the bird just described was.

On July 27th, 1889, I saw sitting on a rail, a
curious-looking bird, which on my getting nearer to
it, proved to be a hawfinch or grosbeak. I got
within a few yards of it, before it flew away to a bush
close by. It probably came from Runtswood or
Curtis's brake which are not very far from where I
saw it. I had the pleasure of seeing two more haw-
finches together, on August 29th, and one on the
following morning at Hogshaw about one hundred
yards from the place where I saw the first.

On July 25 th, 1889, my cousin saw a red-backed
butcher-bird, and I myself found two nests of this

bird near a brook here, a few years ago. This bird
is rare in this neighbourhood, but now and again one
may be seen, and a nest found.

A woodcock was shot here in the winter-time a
year ago, and a lesser sjDOtted woodpecker was shot
here in an orchard two or three years ago. A few
kingfishers have now and then been shot along the
brook-sides around here, during the winter-time, and
one was seen on November 26th last.

A white skylark was seen on a ploughing at Buxlow •
last August, in company with other larks. A white
sparrow has also been seen amongst a flock of its
companions at Quainton, by Mr. William Anstiss of
this village. The same person told me that he caught
in the nets recently a blackbird with some white
feathers on its breast. It might possibly have been a
ring-ousel.

A couple of summer-snipes, or common sand-
pipers were shot near Hagditch pond on the lOth of
May last year, by Mr. Henry Anstiss, my cousin
being present with him at the time. I saw two of
these birds around a large pond at FuUbrook, early
in May in 1888.

He told my cousin that his father many years ago
went after a curlew which was about the slough (a
field near this village), but he could not get near
enough to shoot it. I have also been told by a
younger member of the family, and so has my cousin,
that his father several years ago shot a fine plumaged
bird, amongst a flock of sparrows in a field called
" Ander's Oak." He said it was a little larger than
a house-sparrow with a rather long tail ; the head is
blue, and the body is mottled, and is of various
colours. The upper part of the bill (he said) hooked
over the under portion. I am inclined to think that
this bird mentioned is a crossbill.

Mr. H. Anstiss told my cousin that he shot a
night-hawk or fern-owl a few years ago, during the
autumn or winter-time, as it flew out of an old cow-
shed. One was heard on the evening of the lOth of
May, last year, by my cousin.

He also told him that when he was out shooting in
the winter-time with some one else, he saw a flock of
snipes containing twenty or more, but he thought
they were starlings till they were out of gunshot. A
green whistling plover or golden plover has also been
shot in this neighbourhood a few years ago by the
same person. Many other interesting observations in
bird life have been noticed, by one or another of the
family, and the information they give about them is
thoroughly reliable.

H. G. Ward.

We have received Part I. vol. i. of what promises
to be a most important work on "British Flies"
(Diptera) by the Hon, M. Cordelia E. Leigh and F.
O. Theobald. It is being issued in one shilling parts
by Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.

HARDWICKE*S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

221

MIGT^ATION OF BUTTERFLIES, JAMAICA.

IT is desirable to place on record the migration of
butterflies which we have witnessed in Jamaica
this year. I first noticed that butterflies were steering
a defined course on the first Sunday in May, but they
had been unusually numerous for some days before
that. Their course was from south-east to north-west.
During the whole of May, and far into June, the
migration continued, and always in the same
direction. Singularly, very few entered houses.
Their numbers varied from day to day, but occa-
sionally one might have said, as Darwin's sailors
of the Beagle did, that it was snowing butter-
flies. The air was thick with them. In the evenings
the drift slackened, and some of the trees near my
house would be covered with as many butterflies as
leaves.

I have no information as to their starting-point, but
during the time they were passing Kingstown, I was
informed that the flight had been met with by sea-
men near the Cayman Islands in long. W. 80°,
about 100 miles north-west of Jamaica.

A friend gives me the names of the butterflies as
Synchloc joppa (Boridv.), Kricogortia terina (Luc),
Callidryas semtcc (Linn.), and Amynthia mccriila
(Fabr.). The first three were in myriads, the last
common, and I am doubtful how far its movements
were migratory. I am told that these swarms of
butterflies are well known here ; this is the first
time I have remarked them in a residence of four
years.

The migrations are certainly not of the annual
character they are in Ceylon, where I have seen them
year after year j there they were never so prolonged,
or the butterflies so numerous. Emerson Tennent
gives as the butterflies taking part in the Ceylon
migrations Callidryas hilariu:, C. alcmeojie, C. py-
ranthe, with straggling individuals of the genus
Euplcea.

All flights of butterflies have not -the same direc-
tion. In Alabama in 1S90, (United States Govern-
ment Entomological Journal, April 189 1), Callidryas
enhile migrated from north-west to south-east. One
recent flight was from south-east to north-west.
Lyell speaks of Vanessa cardui flying from north to
south. Tennent's Ceylon butterflies fly north-
easterly. Kirby and Spence mention a migration of
bugs going west.

In these migrations an understood purpose there
can hardly be ; failure of food may compel emigra-
tion, but would not give direction. What impulse
within or, it may be, compulsion without gives
unanimity of effort to these myriads, and the
resemblance of set purpose? What directs their
flight, and what is the end of their journeyings ?

J. W. Plaxton.
Kingston, Jamaica.

CHEAP BREAD.

AS a rule the price of grain, and that of wheat in
particular, rises in this country when there are
most, and again when there are fewest spots upon the
sun, and then we may expect an outcry among
agriculturists and commercial panics. We have,
thanks to Professor Thorold Rogers (" A History of
Agriculture and Prices in England "), over six
centuries of corn statistics, and thanks to Professor
Wolf, over three centuries of sun-spot statistics, to
substantiate these assertions. Firstly, then we
gather, that the following have been the years of
most and fewest sun-spots, as observed by astronomers
since the employment of the telescope in Europe.
1610, 1615, 1619, 1626, 1634, 1639, 1645, 1649,
165s, 1660, 1666, 1675, 1679, 1685, 1689, 1693,
1698, 1705, 1712, 1718, 1723, 1727, 1734, 1738,
1745. 1750. 1755. 1761, 1766, 1769, 1775, 1778,
1784, 1788, 179S, 1804, 1810, .1816, 1823, 1829,
1833. 1S37, 1843, 1848, 1855, i860, 1867, 1870,
1878, 1882. Since the average spacing of these years
is alternately eight and three years, it evidently
follows that commencing with the mean year 1612,
and substracting eight and three alternately, we may
in approximation continue this series backwards : or
commencing with the mean year 1887 and adding
three and eight alternately, we may continue it
prophetically forwards, leaving the revelation of the
exact epochs to astronomers. Secondly we gather
that the following years are those in which grain, and
more especially wheat, has been highest in price in
the United Kingdom. 1259, 1262, 1271, 1274,
1283, 1290, 1294, 1299, 1304, 1309, 1316, 1321,

1331. 1339, 1346, 1351. 1357. "^i^^z^ 1369, 1374.

1380, 1384, 1390, 1396, 1400, 1409, 1416, 1420,
1426, 1432, 143S, 1445, 1450. 1457. 1461, 1469.
1477, 14S2, 1491, 1496, 1501, 1507, 1512, 1520,

1527, 1536, I545> 1551, 1556, 1563. 1566, 1573.
1577— 1648, 1659, 1661, 1665, 1674, 1679, 1685,
1688, 1693, 1698, 1704, 1709, 1720, 1725, 1728,
1735. 1740, 1746, 1753, 1757, 1764, 1767, 1774.
1777. 1783. 1790. 1796, 1801, 1812, 1816, 1825,
1S31, 1S39, 1844, 1847, 1855, 1862, 1867, 1873,
1877, 1881. As the former portion of this series of
years, for the possibility of whose determination w
are indebted to Professor Thorold Rogers, have the
same intervals as the latter portion extracted from
Government statistics ; it becomes apparent that they
in like manner approximate the epochs of most and
fewest sun-spots ; an impression that will be further
confirmed on extending that series backwards in the
manner suggested ; so that it only remains to show
why any particular years in the series do not exactly
coincide with these epochs of most or fewest sun-
spots. " Rain, rain, go to Spain," says the nursery
rhyme ; and here it strikes me this might occur from
the circumstance that the year of most sun-spots is

222

HARD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

not the wettest or windiest in this corner of the globe,
or that the year of fewest sun-spots is not, for these
are times of atmospherical disturbance depending on
the brightening and tarnishing of the sun, whose cold
patches must variously impinge, and quite distinct
from the conception of years. Now according to
Symons the wettest and most uncomfortable years
to joint and sinew in Great Britain have been 1836,
1841, 1848, 1852, and i860; but it is at once plain
that these have not in the highest degree affected the
price of wheat, whereas the influence of the windy or
•weather years 1846 and 1872 in displacement is, as
might be supposed, marked. We ought also to have
the statistics of other corn-producing countries, and a
knowledge of import and export, to perfectly eliminate
all disturbing elements ; but as it is, the agreement
ef the two series of figures will to the unprejudiced
mind appear very close ; and since these are far more
extensive than any Sir William Herschel can be
supposed to have had at his disposal, it will be to no
purpose quoting, as is too often done, his views on
this subject ; while we place the laurel on the shrine
of his genius, and claim him as the patron and
instigator of such researches. Carrington's diagram,
on which the designer set little value, may be
mentioned ; what this chiefly shows is not how the
Corn Laws came to be repealed in the afore-
mentioned year 1846, but how the price of wheat was
exaggerated during our wars with Bonaparte between
1 790 and 1820. The drop in the price of corn in this
country comes in the hollow of the monetary waves
between the epoch of most and fewest sun-spots, and
in a less degree perhaps between that of fewest and
most ; but this matter, as we shall see, is less curious ;
nor is it very clear that the remarkable falls in price
are due to home produce. There was a remarkable
one in 1743 and 1744.

The task is done. As I watch from my window
the Wain, the reaping-hook of the north, move in its
nightly course around the pole until it stands upon its
handle, I recall the cornfields of the dog-days in their
coat of many colours tissued with sleepy poppies, blue-
bottles and cockles, pheasant's-eyes and poor man's
weatherglass. How I love them, for there have
wandered the enchantresses of fame. The devotee of
Delphi, the athlete, silly thing, with a bosom on fire
like Vulcan's, chanting to the cold and fruitless
moon : the more devilish Canidia, grown old and
^g^y > Clorinda at hide and seek in some ivy-entwined
cypress ; the witch of Endor, who seems to have found
out how to clench matters with the bottomless pit ;
perhaps some Assyriologist may yet inform us how :
besides which all those fairer stars who with love and
song broke the bars of death. Well, I have seen the
universe of suns look lovelier certainly on the corn
lands of Castile than here in the Midlands, and the
mystery of philters and ribbons I scarcely comprehend ;
at hand is but a well-thumbed Collier's English
History, which when a dunce at school so

monopolized the shining hours, wherewith to renew
these forbidden delights, and here the page. " The
close of 1857 was a gloomy time in the commercial
world. Mad speculation having plunged the traders
of America into difiiculties, the effect was severely felt
in Europe. Many long-established houses of business
failed. Those that were working without capital, on
accommodation-bills, speedily fell ; and in the crash
more than one of the banks came down, ruined by
those to v/hom they had advanced money with reck-
less imprudence. It was the old story of 1720 and
1797, of 1825 and 1847, told over again — men rich in
paper, dreaming that they are rich in gold." Softly,
these epochs of the sun already quoted would appear
to be an index to our dear wheat, our dear barley, our
dear oats, our discontent and our panics. The
puppets of history, they are all here, black as the
damning drops from the archangel's pen, and the
shock I received at the discovery caused me to fling
book and paper aside as if all the suns had turned on
me their batteries ; while before my eyes, conjured up
by the figures, undulated in lean and hungry proces-
sion, the Mad Parliament, very doubtlessly; the
Black Death ; Wat Tyler and Jack Straw ; Jack
Cade ; the Defence of the Faith and the Suppression
of the Monasteries ; the Rack and Bonfires ; Ship
Money ; the Headsman ; the Plague and Great Fire ;
the South Sea Bubble. I can no more ; let the
intelligent reader recount if any be absent, and should
he doubt my numbers let him count the grains of
corn in the field until he find the error, for here is no
superstition, no conjunction of heavenly bodies, no
comets that come and cease to be. The morning
breaks and our sun arises and shines as it has shone
and will shine. The glory of Sepharvaim, of On,
of Baalbec is departed, their corn-overseers have
vanished, but here in my hand I hold their " Mene,
Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," safe and sure. Froude
the historian seems to think that Christianity is no
longer any use, and enquires. What next ? But though
it be scientifically possible to call to account the man
of destiny and star-born hero, how about our wars in
the Middle Ages, feline and fanatical, and now-a-
days waged with an eye to the balance of power ?
Are we to encourage free trade or protection ?

A. H. SWINTON.

"MY METHOD."

I HAVE been so often asked in what way I
managed to preserve my botanical specimens
with more than usual of their natural colour and form,
that I think it may interest some of your readers who
are collectors, to know the method I pursue.

I tried many devices before I succeeded in any
way to my own satisfaction. At the best of times
the beautiful blossoms must lose much of their form
and brilhant colouring, and will even with the greatest

I

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

223

possible care occasionally justify the goodnatured
smile of an " outsider,"' when shown triumphantly
some valuable specimen by an enthusiastic botanist.

I tried for many years all the usual ways, "drying "-
papers, blotting-paper, etc., and changing the papers
each day, till I once found a flower accidentally left in a
book, and beautifully dried — a small blue campanula,
one of the most difficult colours to preserve, and took
the hint. I keep a library of old yellow novels,
pamphlets, directories, etc., and dry all my smaller
specimens in them, not putting more than five or six
in each, and I find that they are compressed enough
by tightening the books with elastic bands, three put
on lengthwise, and four or five across the book, as
tight as they can be put on. Then I place my books
where there is a good draught (if possible on a
sunny window-sill), putting under each end of the
book a little prop so that the air circulates fieely
round it, and I never open my book for a week, by
which time the specimens are generally perfectly dry,
and the colour wonderfully well preserved. Finger-
ing the half-dried plants invariably spoils the colours,
turning some almost black. In this way the plants
dry much more quickly than in the usual plan of putting
them in the soft drying-paper, which keeps moist.

The orchidaceous and other succulent plants are
the most perplexing and difficult to deal with, but I
have to some extent succeeded with them by the
following plan. I cut the specimens across, and dry
each part separately. In the stalk of the upper part,
from the blossom down, I make a slight slit and
placing a bit of blotting-paper on it press out the
moisture with a small paper-knife ; amongst the
blossoms of the spike I put sundry small bits of white
writing-paper, and shut up my book tightly, with
not more than three orchids in it. The small bits of
paper prevent the blossoms sticking together, and
drying in a shapeless mass, and also keep the colour
better. The other parts are easily dried by slitting
the stalks as above mentioned ; and the leaves also, by
this method, do not become so black as is usual with
orchids in drying, sometimes I have managed to keep
them quite green.

I never dry large specimens of any sort without
dividing them ; it is easy to put the parts together
again. The top of the plant, with its bunch of heavy
buds and blossoms, effectually prevents the delicate
leaves drying successfully.

Roses present a great difficulty, and such flowers
as o.K-eye daisies, etc. The rose I place on its face
and use a number of "compresses" the size of the
blossom, and each with a hole cut in the centre
large enough to let the back through, till the compress
is on a level with the top ; the same with the ox-eye,
only of course reversing the position of the blossom ;
such-like flowers are comparatively easy to settle,
and one is amply rewarded by the outside florets
remaining their full size, instead of being crumpled up
to less than a quarter their length. I must add that

I dry my books most carefully after taking the
specimens out of them.

Very large specimens I dry in piles of newspapers
(a newspaper doubled in four is generally large
enough for mine), with a stout pasteboard of the same
size under and over, and the elastic bands tightly
bound over all, and with plenty of sun and air it is
most successful.

Perhaps all this sounds very troublesome, but it
takes less time than changing the papers each day
according to the old system, and will be found far
better and satisfactory if properly carried out.

T, Grierson.

NOTES ON THE FLORA OF BRAUNTON
BURROWS, NORTH DEVON.

WHILST on a visit to North Devonshire during
the early part of August, I had an oppor-
tunity of spending a few hours on the botanically
well-known Braunton Burrows, which I have seen
described as a "sandy paradise of botanists," and
perhaps my fellow-readers of SciENCE-GossiP would
be interested to know what plants I noticed there.
The "burrows" consist of a tract of sand-dunes,
forming a large portion of the delta of the rivers Taw
and Torridge, extending probably five or six miles
along the sea coast. For about a quarter of a mile
inland from high-water mark the sand-hills are very
sterile, their position being constantly altered by the
action of the wind, the only vegetation that has been
able to gain a footing being some tufts of very coarse
grass, with a specimen here and there of prickly salt-
wort [Salsola kali), three or four species of spurge,
including the sea spurge {^EitpJiorbia paralia) and the
Portland spurge {E. Portlandica), henbane (Hyoscya-
inus niger) and the hound's-tongue {^Cynoglossum
officinale). But a little further inland the flora is
exceedingly luxuriant, for miles the Burrows are
covered with some of the most beautiful and interest-
ing of our native plants, including a number of species
that are rare, and several peculiar to this particular
district. Perhaps the most striking plant here is the
viper's bugloss {Echium vulgare) ; many parts of the
Burrows are literally gay with its intensely blue
flowers, its relative the small bugloss {Lycopus
arvensis) being also common. The rare sharp-fruited
rush {yuncus acutiis) forms here and there dense rigid
patches, the stems are about four feet high, ending
in exceedingly strong sharp points, the fruits are
larger and harder than our other species of J uncus.
Amongst the ranker kinds of vegetation I noticed
the Gromwell {Lithospermzun officinale), which had
almost done flowering, but could easily be identified
by its intensely hard white shining fruits, flea-bane
{Inula dyscnterica), sea-holly {Eyytigiurn T)iaritimum),
which, strange to say, seems rare in this district, wild
celery [Apitim gi'aveolens) and dyer's-weed {Reseda
liiieola).

224

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

In several places the well-known soap-wort,
{Saponaria officinalis), so often found as an escape
from cottage gardens, is extremely abundant, and
grows very luxuriantly a considerable distance from
habitations. I think it may be justly considered
as indigenous here; Bentham says "perhaps
really native on the coast of Devon and Corn-
wall."

Still further inland I saw a few plants of the wild
clary (Salvia verbenaca), which is a fairly common
plant in this part of North Devon ; very fine specimens
of the mullen {Verbasciim thapsics), wild vervein
( Verbena officinalis) — I could only find one plant ;
wild succory {Cichoriuin intybus), sheep's-bit,(ya«f«^
montaiia), and many other commoner, but equally
beautiful plants. But it is in the boggy parts of the
"Burrows" that the most interesting species occur.
Between the hills in many places the soil, although
consisting almost entirely of sand, contains so much
moisture as to have quite a marshy character, and
many marsh-loving plants grow luxuriantly. The
sea-pansy ( Viola Curtisii) is exceedingly abundant, its
pretty little yellow flower is one of the gems of the
"Burrows"; this is considered by Bentham as a
mere variety of V. liitea ; it is intermediate between
this and the garden pansy. The beautiful little
bog pimpernel [Anagallis tenclla) grows plentifully
along with it, its pink flowers forming a pleasant
contrast. The dwarf centaury (Erythrcea pulchella) ;
brook -weed [Samoliis valerandi), the specimens of this
plant are very small, usually about three inches high
and often much less. The very rare yellow Bartsia
(Bartsia viscosa) I only saw in one place, it grew
along with the common red species (B. odentites).
The stork's-bill {Erodiiim ciciitariiim) is one of the
commonest plants on the " Burrows," varying much
in size according to the nature of the situations. I
also saw the milk-wort {Polygala vulgaris), sea-
lavender {Statice limonitim), thrift {Arineria maritima),
and the stinking iris (Iris fcEtidissima) ; the latter plant
was in fruit. These are only a very few out of a
great many commoner plants I noticed in the few
hours I spent in the district ; probably had I time for
another visit, I might have noticed many other
species.

I may add that this is the only British station for
the roundheaded club-rush {Scirpus holoschcenus) ; it
is said to be plentiful on the " Burrows," but I was
disappointed in not finding it. The sea-stodc
[Matthiola sin7iata), bastard pimpernel (Ccntunculus
tninifnus), sea-knotgrass {Polygonum maritiinum) and
marsh helleborine (Epipactus palustris), are also
recorded for Braunton Burrows.

I think I have said sufficient to show that this
station would be well worth a visit from any of the
botanical readers of SciENCE-GossiP who may be
spending a holiday in Devonshire.

John Collins.

Birmingham,

EGYPT AND GUIANA.
A Coincidence.

THE study of the progress of mankind in the art
of manufacture is a subject of great attraction
to the student of science ; any detail, therefore, which
bears upon the art, adds one more link to the chain
of knowledge.

Referring to the native Indians of the South
American Continent, and more especially to the
inhabitants of the vast regions of Guiana, it has been
noted as a very remarkable coincidence, that the
decorative patterns which frequently ornament the
borders of the " Simarri " or grater (a flat slab of
wood, surfaced with a resinous gum, embedded with
numerous small pieces of flint upon which to grate
edible roots), resemble the fret patterns of ancient

Fig. i88.— Guiana Root-press.

times ; the Greek key or Meander device, so
common in Egyptian and Assyrian ornamentation and
on Etruscan and Greek vases, being of constant
occurrence. The coincidence is certainly striking,
but a fact still remains with regard to which, so far
as known, no attention has been hitherto paid.

If we turn to the " Malapi " or Strainer (a long
cylindrical plaited case, permitting of great circum-
ferential expansion and contraction, wherein the
grated roots are subjected to great pressure for the
expulsion of their juices), its origin appears buried in
oblivion. Some wild tribes go so far as to ascribe
its knowledge as a gift imparted direct to them by
the beneficence of their deity, but beyond this the
question remains unanswered.

But once more do the long ages of the past cast
back their beams of light upon the enquiries of the

HARDWICKE'S SCTENCE-GOSSIT,

225

present, and so it is upon Egyptian monuments that
we now find the desired and striking clue.

In the pages of Cassell's " Bible Dictionary " may
be seen an illustration of an ancient Egyptian wine-
press, and clearly we have here the origin of the
Matapi of Guiana, and this, coupled with the remark-
able use of the Greek, or rather shall we say the

Fig. i$9.— Egyptian Grape-press.

Egyptian key device, sets the mind pondering over
time and space to discover, if it can, how is it that
these modes of earliest decorations and manufacture by
old-world African civilisation, have reached and still
retain their hold in darkest regions, and after the lapse
of centuries reappear upon modern civilization out
from the very depths of the forests in the South
American new world.

George S. Parkinson.

THE ORCHARD ORIOLE OF THE UNITED
STATES.

BEHIND the old farmhouse, stretching from the
barn on one side to the lane which leads back
to the hill-wood lot on the other, stands the ancient
orchard. It was planted, perhaps, a century ago,
when this old farm was one of the frontier settlements
of civilisation, and owes its origin to seeds brought
from Rhode Island or Vermont, or possibly from
England itself. The trees have grown to their full
stature, and their interlocking boughs present a
continuous canopy of shade, except here and there
one has fallen under some fierce blast, and has been
removed for fuel. The stumps of these unfortunates
soon became nuclei for thickets of briers sown by the
winds from the raspberry and blackberry vines along
the fence ; their rotting roots were quickly honey-
combed by the galleries of the ants, and their dense
coverts formed a place of refuge for the grass-snakes,
and the occasional blacksnake or two that crept up
from the brook. Only the wood-pile, the vegetable
patch, and a line of currant and gooseberry bushes
inten-enes between the back porch and the firm turf
over which you walk between the gnarled and lean-
ing trunk?.

No part of the farm is more delightful, it is the first
attraction of the city visitor, and the loved lounging-
place of the rustic in his idle moments. In April
he watches the earliest opening of the foliage, greets
the first reddening flower-buds, and gazes with admira-
tion upon the whitening blossoms making a vast
bouquet of each aged tree, and rejuvenating it.
Then as the flowers carpet the sward with their rosy
petals, and the tiny calyces grow larger and greener
day by day, he observes with interest the fattening of
the little apples, speculates on the prospect of a good
yield, and by August tries his teeth on a yellowish
one that has fallen, perhaps finding a single palatable
bit on that side of it which has been next to the sun.
Then the harvest : —

" But shake your fruit from the orchard-tree

To the tune of the brook and the hum of the bee,

And the chipmunks chirping every minute,

And the clear, sweet note ot the gay little linnet,

And the grass and the flowers.

And the long summer hours,
And the flavour of sun and breeze are in it."

How the red and yellow and russet apples lie in
bright heaps on the grass, forming great circles
about each trunk, reflecting the ruddy afternoon sun,
as it glints among the branches, and shimmers through
the September haze in a soft golden tlory, while dim
in the dusk the veery carols on the tree-top, and from
the fence down by the brook, a thrasher whistles his
happy " Good-night ! "

The orchard is beloved of all the birds, but with
some it is a chosen and constant home, so that you will
find them almost nowhere else. So manifest is this
preference that one bird at least takes its name from
the circumstance ; I speak of the orchard oriole
{Icterus spnriiis, Linn.), which is well known every-
where outside of New England, as far west as the
Great Plains.

Although by no means a dandy like the Baltimore
oriole, he is every inch a gentleman, and wears his
neat dress of crimson and black with an aristocratic
air. Yet he is not above work. No bird is more
carelessly active, and none is a better friend of the
agriculturist, for from his first arrival in May until he
joins small companies of his fellows for the southward
journey in October, he is untiring in his pursuit of
just those insects which the orchardist most dreads.
A quarter of an hour's watching ofone will satisfy any-
body of his claim to our admiration and thanks.
He flies to a branch, moves his head from side to
side, spies a canker-worm trusting — vain hope ! — to its
colour to hide it on the green surface of a leaf, and
pounces upon it in an instant ; then a nest of tent-
caterpillars catches his eye, and he attacks it
furiously, ramming down the shreds of silk, and
greedily eating every one of the writhing and horrid
mass of hairy worms, a meal few other birds will
undertake. Even that does not satiate him, and he
restlessly renews the search for those creeping larvre
of insects so desirable to him and his family, and so
hateful to the farmer. He seems to revel in his work.

226

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G O SSIP.

and hurries about with a busy and gleeful air,
heedless of your espionage, his crimson coat gleaming
among the glossy leaves or contrasting sharply with
the aromatic blossoms.

Though in this steady and diligent search for
insect-food, he helps the orchardist by the destruction
of hordes of noxious and well-hidden kinds, yet of
course, not having any such purpose in view, and
making no benevolent distinction when his palate is
suited, he undoubtedly snaps up many an insect which
is perfectly harmless to both tree and fruit, or does
positive harm by killing such as prey upon the enemies
of the apple-cultivator. Yet, when I examine his list
of foods, I cannot but think that the average of good
achieved against evil done is greatly in his favour.

The gaiety which marks all his actions, also
characterizes his song. He whistles a clear full tune,
not the richly modulated music of the Baltimore, but
a sprightly impromptu air, hastening from note to
note as though singing against time, and yet under a
protest at the speed he is obliged to assume, and with
an embarrassed feeling that he is not doing his best.
This remarkable song is altogether indescribable, and
is not heard with much regularity after the 1st of
June, as he knows the necessity of controlling his
exuberant spirits for the sake of the safety of
his defenceless household.

Finding his pleasure and profit in the garden and
in familiarity with men, this oriole makes his home
almost exclusively in orchards, and is found breeding
there from the Rio Grande to Lake Erie ; but rarely
to the eastward of the Hudson River. Frequently
several nests will be seen in adjoining trees, all the
proprietors on the most neighbourly terms with each
other, and with other birds. The nest is ordinarily
suspended only a few feet from the ground, between
the gnarled twigs near the end of an apple-bough, to
which it is strongly bound, and beneath which it is
essentially pensile, although by no means so freely
swinging a pouch as the structure of the Baltimore
•oriole. Nevertheless, it is sometimes hung (much
after the manner of the Baltimore's) among the
pendent tips of drooping willow branches, several of
which will be found woven into its sides in such a
way as to serve as admirable upright ribs or stays.
Such nests are likely to prove of neater workmanship,
and perhaps a trifle greater in depth, than others.
In both cases, however, the shape and proportions
are nearly the same, the cavity being about as large
as a coffee-cup. The walls are rather thin, particu-
larly in nests built at the south, where a circulation
of air is so desirable.

The material of which this beautiful and easily
recognised structure is composed, consists usually of
pliant stems, yellowish-green grass, often with the
ripe heads left on, giving a somewhat rough appear-
ance in many cases to the outside of the nest. This
grass is woven into a firm basket, the stems being
closely interlaced 'as if done with a needle. Some-

times there is a lining of thistle and cotton-wood
blossoms, the downy breast-feathers of ducks, etc.,
forming a soft mat at the bottom. The leaves about
the nest are arranged, often apparently by the artful
skill of the bird — to shed the rain, shade the sitter,
and conceal the domicile, which last intention is so-
well accomplished that the nest is difficult to discover,
no matter how familiar you may be with the orchard
or grove in which you are certain it is situated,
since its colour harmonises closely with all its sur-
roundings.

While this is the customary type of nest in the
interior of the country, and remarkable for its
uniformity over a wide region, variations occur on
the seaboard. Thus at Trenton, New Jersey, where
these orioles have frequented for many years a group
of pines and button-woods, near the rural home of
Dr. Charles C. Abbott (the well-known naturalist),
they build homes of quite different character. In
social harmony, several pairs annually place at
the extremities of the upper branches, nests which
are not hung underneath in any sense, but supported
in the midst of a cluster of twigs, and resting upon
them and the branch from which they spring.

These nests are formed with care out of the same
long flexible grasses used in the pendulous structures ;
but skilfully intermixed with them are many pine
needles, an ingredient which would not be per-
missible in the other type of architecture. Dr.
Abbott tells me that this is the prevailing style
throughout all the pine districts of southern N£w
Jersey. On the other hand, in the northern part of
the state, fifty to a hundred miles distant, the orchard!
orioles never fix upon the pine branches as a site, but
inhabit the fruit trees exclusively, making a nest of
interwoven grasses, not pensile, but upheld as before
in the midst of a clump of twigs, to which it is-
securely fastened. Again, a competent observer in
this district tells me he has never known the orioles
there to use the same nest twice ; whereas at Trenton,
not only do they return to the same ancestral tree
season after season, but always tear the old nest to
pieces with amusing vehemence to obtain material
for construction of the new, which are occasionally
erected upon the foundations of a previous structure.

The elongated eggs are impure white, marbled
with irregular streaks of black and leather-brown,
much like those of the Baltimore oriole.

Wilson says that this songster is easily reared from)
the nest, and in confinement becomes very tame and
familiar. " A friend of ours," says Mr. Thomas
Gentry, " kept one in a cage for several years, which'
whistled with remarkable clearness and spirit. It
was a particular favourite with its owner, and learned
to come at his bidding, and at a given signal would
pour forth its choicest music with an energy and
power that were truly astonishing."

Krnest In-gersoll.

Nav ITavat, Conn., U.S. A,

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP.

227

ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS.
No. 5.

MOST of the genera of lobose Rhizopods, de-
scribed in my previous articles, are more or
less familiar to every student of pond-life ; but few
specimens of the genus I have now to describe, will
have been seen by any microscopist who has not
made a special study of these forms of life. I refer to
the beautiful genus Nebela. It is one of the largest
genera, and contains eight species, all of great
interest from the extraordinary form and arrange-
ment of the elements composing their fairy-like
tests. The characters, as given by Professor Leidy,
are as follows, " Shell usually compressed, pyriform,

SFig. tgo.— Nebela collarit.

Fig. 191. — N. collar is.

transparent, colourless, (?) with or without appen-
dages, composed of cancellated membrane, or of
peculiar intrinsic elements of variable form and size,
mostly of circular or oval disks ; of narrow rect-
angular plates or rods ; or of thin, less regular,
angular plates, often almost exclusively of one or the
other, sometimes of two or more intermingled in
variable proportions ; sometimes of chitinoid mem-
brane incorporated with more or less extrinsic
■ elements ; and sometimes of these entirely, as in
.Difflugia. Mouth inferior, terminal, oval. Sarcode
• colourless ; in form, constitution, and arrangement,
. as in Difflugia," &c. From these characters, it will be

readily seen how much the genus differs, from all the
others previously described. This is further ex-
emplified in its habitat. I have never found a single
representative of the genus during the twenty years I
have been an assiduous collector, in any of the wells,
ponds, ditches or other waters I have regularly
visited. It is an inhabitant of sphagnous swamps,
and is generally found in great numbers in such
situations. Rossendale being a hilly district, with a
good natural drainage, assisted by art, I was appre-
hensive that I should be unable to claim this desirable
Rhizopod ; but as I knew of a small boggy spot about
a mile from my house, one bitterly cold afternoon at
the end of October I set off, armed only with a
wide-mouthed bottle, determined to put the ques,tion

Fig. x<)8.— M collarit.

Fig. 193.— iV^. collaris.

Fig. 194.— i\7'. collarh
(Side view).

to the test. The side of one of our doughs had been
washed away, at one point, probably through the
action of a spring of water, and in the sloping ground
for about half a dozen square yards quantities of
Sphagnum grew among the coarse grass of the bog.
I pulled up a handful of the moss, and all dripping
as it was, dropped it into my bottle, and then
squeezed other masses of Sphagnum over it. On
returning home and quickly placing a drop of water,
with broken-down fragments of the moss, on a glass
slip, covering this with the usual thin glass, and
placing the whole under the microscope, I was de-
lighted to find scores of the beautiful Nebela, of
several species, and exhibiting most of the variations
so characteristic of the genus. Subsequent examina-
tions proved it to be very rich, not only in these
forms, but in several new ones, which;latter I reserve

228

HARD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

for a subsequent article. The two species of Nebela
I will now describe, literally swarmed in every drop
of water examined.

N. collaris, which was the most numerous form, has
the shell a compressed pyriform, longer than broad,
though the proportion varies considerably in different
specimens ; indeed so much is this the case, both in
form and constitution, that it is rare to find two
specimens exactly alike. I give drawings of a few of
the chief varieties I have found, but it would be
quite impossible to give them all. Some of the
forms I have seen are very obscure, and it is ex-
tremely difficult to determine their structure ; this is
particularly the case in those specimens which have
both plates, diatoms and sand-grains intermingled in
varying proportions, in their construction. Although
it is one of the characters of the genus that the basal
membrane is colourless, I have on several occasions
seen specimens of a yellow colour, which yet ex-
hibited all the other characters of Nebela. Most of
those which came under my observation were either
empty shells, or the sarcode was encysted, in the
form of a round ball ; occasionally, in the latter

Fig, 195. — N.flabellujn (large oval plates, regularly
disposed).

case the mouth of the shell was closed by a
rude operculum, I presume of chitinoid material
mixed with ejected food, generally in layers. The
shell itself, has, I take it in all cases, a basal mem-
brane, superimposed on, or embedded in which are
numbers of silicious plates, round, oval, or rod-like,
variously but symmetrically arrayed. These are of
different sizes, but this has no sort of relationship
with the size of the shell, as a large shell may have
small discs, and a small shell large discs. The
drawings will give an idea of this variation, so it will
be unnecessary for me to enlarge upon this point.
The sarcode is colourless, but there are frequently
numerous yellow or brown food-balls. The nucleus
is impossible to make out, owing to the constitution
of the shell, and the coloured food-matters ; but two
or three contracting vesicles may be seen in favour-
able specimens. The pseudopodia are finger-like,
and rarely more than two or three in number,
Leidy gives the average size as jJn of an inch long,
355 broad, and 3I5 thick j most of my specimens were
about that size, though occasional ones were as
large as §5, and others as small as the 3!^ in length.

The other species Nebela Jlabellum, was not
nearly so numerously represented in my collection.
I do not think that this form ought to have been
elevated to specific rank, the only difference being
one of general outline ; and I think I have seen a
few specimens that fairly connect the two. N'.
Jlabelhim is broadly pyriform, or spheroidal, com-
pressed, as in the previous species, generally broader
than long, though some of the tests are about equal
in this respect. There is also a short neck in all the
Rossendale specimens. In size, colour, constitution
of shell, condition and character of the sarcode and
pseudopodia, and in its habitat, like the preceding
form,

N. collaris. Fig, 190, Test composed of irregularly
rounded plates evenly distributed over the basal
membrane. Sarcode [ with brown food-balls, en-
cysted ; a laminated operculum at the mouth.

Fig, 191, A large, handsome form, of large circular
plates, with the intervals fiUed-in with smaller ones ;
sarcode encysted.

Fig. 192. Small empty test, entirely of small,
round plates.

S*=&1

WcftMi)j(>tiuti'»7J?g'»'e.f

>\!(if\

■'''ffi

Fig. 196. — N. flabelhim (of yellow chitinous membrane
covered with hexagonal pit).

Fig. 193. Another variety of irregular hexagonal
plates, which appeared sunk in the basal membrane.

Fig. 194. Side-view.

N. Jlabelhim. ^Yig. 195. Test of large oval plates,
regularly distributed ; sarcode with yellow food-
balls, encysted.

Fig. 196. Of yellow chitinoid membrane, cancel-
lated, or reticulated, apparently without plates,

J, E. Lord.

Raxotcnstall.

THE WOLF AND THE LAPPS IN SWEDISH
LAPLAND, AND INCIDENTALLY IN
OTHER PARTS.

By John Wager,

IT was remarked once to the present writer by a
Lapp, among the snowy mountains of Swedish
Lapland, bordering upon Norway, that the reindeer
has many enemies. He instanced among the rest
man himself ; for, though less frequent than formerly,
there are, as he said, men even, besides others, of
Lappish race, who do not scruple when opportunity

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

229

offers, to rob the much-enduring nomad by shooting
one of his deer, perchance from a boat, as it is
grazing on the margin of a river or lake. Yet more
persistently, if less fatally hostile, is the broms, a fly
whose larva, hatched from eggs laid in the deer's
skin, fill it with perforations ; and even worse are the
attacks of the myggs, or mosquitoes, whose hosts,
armed with tormenting, blood-imbibing stings, as the
summer advances gather in clouds, and drive the
herds and their masters up to snowy altitudes for
refuge and relief. The eagle, soaring on ampler
wing, snatches not rarely a fawn for its nested young ;
the ponderous bear, lying in ambush, secures at
intervals an elder of the herd ; and far more fre-
quently, by similarly lurking under covert, the
crafty, insatiable glutton, with claws and teeth hard
and sharp as steel, succeeds in springing upon the
neck of an antlered victim and drinking its blood.
Next to the wolf, and even in some times and places
more than the wolf, it is the most destructive north-
ern beast of prey ; for it is, more than other beasts,
the plague of the cattle-farmer as well as the Lapp.
Nevertheless, the wolf is the arch-enemy of the
reindeer, and as such is held in utter detestation by
the Lapp, who seizes every chance of wreaking
vengeance on the ravager of his herds. According
to old Lappish traditions, this ravenous beast was
not created by a beneficent being, but by Perkel the
devil, who endowed it, above all other animals, with
swiftness of foot. God, however, to check its speed,
added the bushy tail, by throwing after it a twig of
spruce fir.

The bitter exasperation of the Lapp against the
wolf is not to be wondered at when we consider the
labour and the loss to which from time immemorial
his hereditary enemy has subjected! him, and still
subjects. Summer and winter, day and night, he
with his faithful dog must be on the alert, guarding
the herd. " Indescribable," says Professor Friis,
"what the Lapp endures thus watching. When
darkness is deepest, cold bitterest, snowstorm fear-
fulest, he must be on the watch. At least every
quarter of an hour he must take his round, hallooing,
screaming, and making all manner of loud outcries ;
for thus the wolf, though only when not very hungry,
can be kept aloof." Should he once sleep at his
post, the wolf, more watchful than himself, would
presently wet his fangs with the blood of a deer. A
single wolf, slaughtering like a fiend incarnate, for
the love of slaughter, far beyond the needs of
appetite, has been known to kill thirty deer in one
night ; and, as stated by the above-named author
(E7t Sommer i Finmarken, Russisk Lapland og
Nordkarelen), from two or three, up to that number,
m.iy be lost in a night notwithstanding the strictest
watch ; while possibly a man, rich in the even-
ing, with several hundred reindeer, may in the
morning be a beggar ; his herd destroyed, hunted
over precipices, and dispersed far and wide by a

numerous pack of wolves, some falling into the hands
of thieves, and the rest of the living never, by the
most strenuous efforts, to be wholly collected together
again.

Consideration of such facts leads us to excuse the
implacable animosity, if not the barbarous cruelty,
directed by the Lapp against the wolf. Not only
does he give no quarter to the enemy when it falls
under his power alive, but, like a cat playing with a
mouse, he tortures it awhile before killing it out-
right. Fleet as the wolf is on firm ground — and its
name in Lappish is synonymous with quick — when
■ deep and loose snow impedes its progress, it is often
outrun by the gliding Lapp, who thereupon strikes
with his heav}' staff a blow on the small of its back,
which compels it to sit instantly and immovably on
the ground. A sudden thrust at the heart, with the
spear-end of the staff, would now terminate the
creature's misery ; but that were scarce sufficient
gratification for the heated and exasperated pursuer's
love of revenge. If there are other wolves to be
followed, he perhaps leaves his victim awhile,
secured by its broken back, and renews the chase ; if
not, he awaits his lagging comrades, and with them,
when they gather round the deliquent in a ring,
arraign him in open court, constituting themselves
accusers, witnesses and judges all in one. His
doom is predetermined, and they have only, as
executioners, to enjoy the pleasures of the wild
justice called revenge. They denounce him in the
most violent of abusive terms ; they beat and pommel
him, and prick him with the point of their spears ;
they swear at him ; they ban him with the most
fearful curses their language, copious in such phrase-
ology, can supply ; they upbraid him with all the
mischief he and his progenitors throughout all time
have ever wrought ; and finally, amid shouts of
exultation, they put him to death in a manner most
calculated to inflict severest pain.

Such, till recently, was a common practice among
the Mountain-Lapps : but the present writer was in-
formed a few years since, by a Swedish clergyman, on
the authority of a section of those nomads, with whom
at intervals he comes in contact, that the custom was
greatly on the decrease, passing away before the
more genial influences and superior enlightenment,
which for some time past have been brought to bear
on the raw, untutored minds of these hardy, isolated
children of the mountain wilds.

The Lapp rarely shoots the wolf, in Sweden
never ; he prefers, as a surer weapon than the gun,
the use of the staff with which he propels himself on
his snow-shoes ; and which, to serve both purposes, is
formed of a very stout and straight branch of birch-
tree, barked and smoothed, provided — in one case
seen by the writer — at the upper end with a long,
pointed iron spike, firmly secured by a large and
strong brass ferule, enclosed in a sheaf of reindeer
horn ; and at the lower end with an iron spike eight

230

HARD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G O SSIF.

inches in length, being two inches shorter than the
pike at the other end. In pursuit of the wolf with
such a weapon the hardy, active and enduring skid-
runner, gliding and bounding on his skidor, or snow-
shoes, often strains his energies to a degree which
injures health and shortens life. It is a great honour
among the Lapps to outrun and destroy a wolf; and
among the Lapp mountains, as among the seats of
learning, and the mouths of cannon, there are spirits
who [eagerly seek the bubble reputation, and are
sensitive to the spur of fame. All Lapps, and most,
if not all, the peasants of Lapland, man and woman,
can"run on skids — the narrow, flat snow-shoes, or'
skates, of rather thin but tough wood, from ten to
sixteen feet in length, with upturned points in front ;
but, though all are adroit at their use, it is not
every man, and perhaps no man except a Lapp, who
could put salt on the bushy tail of a wolf, or could
crack his backbone with the skidstaff, as impelled by
terror he flits at his utmost possible speed.

Such chase can only be successfully accomplished
on the lower forested tracts, where the wolf's fleet
limbs are hampered by sinking into the deep, loose

■ snow, usually lying there during winter ; or when the
crust, which sometimes forms over it, is too thin to
bear his weight without breaking. Then let him
beware of showing his grim visage, or his spoor, in
the neighbourhood of the herds he has stealthily
followed from the mountains. Soon as seen or

• denoted, by the vigilant watchers and their dogs,

: notice that the wolf is afoot is carried with all speed
to the tent, or tents, and the skidrunners are quickly
ready for the hunt. "The wolf," says H. A.

"Widmark, in a communication to Professor von

iDiiben's important work on Lapland and the Lapps,
"from his great capability of persistent exertion,
taxes to the utmost the pursuer's powers and pre-
tensions. He must be followed almost continuously

•day and night, and so constantly disturbed, that
at last he becomes exhausted and outrun. Many
Lapps therefore take part in a wolf-hunt, although
only one or another is properly the hunter. In
Jokkmokk at present there are only two who can
hold out till the wolf is reached. The ability to
" ranne upp " a wolf is not given to many Lapps,

.and they who have the luck to possess it, destroy
their health soon enough by these feats. Through-
out the whole day to have no rest, to cast off, for
lightness sake, while running one article of clothing
after the other, leaving them to be picked up by
less rapid pursuers, and to suffer, perhaps, dis-
appointment after all effort— such is the wolf-hunter's
experience. For it often happens, that when the
hunter has quite nearly approached the wolf, he is

•obliged to relinquish the chase, because his game has
had the good fortune to attain at that moment, the
open treeless mountain-lands, where the snow is
firm, and towards which, when it is not too distant,
he always steers his course, thence keeping watch for

another opportunity of approaching the herds. To
devote himself for several successive days, even
weeks sometimes, to this severe exertion, craves a
power of endurance on the part of the hunter, which
is rare indeed. His recompense consists in the
enjoyment experienced when, after so many arduous
toils, he at last thrusts his spear into the body of his
foe ; but also in that regard, that acknowledgment
of merit awarded him by all his kin."

The work entitled Hos LappbSnder, by P. A.
Lindholm, also contains a graphic description of a
wolf-hunt in the south of Swedish Lapland, a
translation of which may interest the reader. In late
autumn perhaps, traces of the depredating wolf have
at intervals been observed in proximity to the herds ;
though in consequence of strict watch, loud outcries
of dogs and men, and vulpine knowledge of the
penetrative quality of the herdsman's spear, little or
no mischief has hitherto been done. But prevention
is better than cure — if cure there could be for a
slaughtered reindeer. "Soon," therefore, "as deep
snow falls, the quickest skidrunners in the district
accoutre themselves for a general hunt. The wolf
meantime suspects danger, and takes a start, not
seldom of fourteen miles. That helps him little ;
his spoor is seen in the snow, and soon his pursuers
are within hearing. Now it behoves him to flee for
his life and his skin ; and that he does at the best.
Over stocks and stones, through densest forest, and
the ruggedest tracts, usually traversible only at the
gentlest pace, the hunt flits now at an astonishing
speed. When the wolf has not recently fed, he
runs not only with rapidity, but also with great
persistence ; nevertheless here his efforts fall short of
the emergency. His jjursuers are no common men.
That train of thort-grown mortals, clad in kilted coats
and sugar-loaf caps rustles past like a gust of wind.
One verily grows dizzy at the sight of them, speeding
like the flight of an arrow, down steep hills ; bound-
ing from fathom-high escarpments, or rushing through
the closest thickets, where tree-branches permit no
cap to be kept on the head. In the course of this
onward rush the party becomes separated ;. all make
superhuman efforts, but one naturally wins and takes
the lead ; each of the rest striving to come as little
as possible in the rear of him, and especially to avoid
the dishonour of being last. Sometimes, but very
seldom, a Lapland peasant joins in the hunt ; but his
class rarely attain the proficiency in skidrunning
possessed by the Lapp.

"His mortal enemy is soon in the power of the fore-
most hunter, with no mercy to expect ; so he turns
towards him with a grin, while a cloud of warm
vapour issues from his throat. The Lapp laughs at
his victim's spite, and gives him in return a violent
blow on the loins with his skidstaff, which seats him
on the snow. If the wolf was not alone in the chase,
he kills him at once and pursues his companions ;
but otherwise he sets himself before the wounded

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

231

animal, and gravely dilates on all the delinquencies
he and his relatives have perpetrated against the
Lapps ; then, at the end of this denunciatory sermon,
he puts the culprit to death. It has occasionally
happened that the Lapp at the moment of striking
the disabling blow, has himself also dropped down,
in a swoon caused by over-exertion ; in which case
the wolf, though not respited, is saved the extra
infliction of a death-sermon, the victor's comrades
being sufficiently occupied with his restoration to
conscious life.

" The wolf is not stripped of his skin till all the
hunters arrive at the place of his death. Then the
slayer, beginning the operation, flays the head ; the
second in at the death flays the next ; and so on till
it comes to the last, who gets leave to draw the
skin from its tail.

"After the completion of the flaying, the hunters
return in the order they held at the end of the chase ;
the foremost bearing the skin as a trophy of honour ;
and on arriving at home they are entertained with
the best."

In Norway, as appears from Professor Friis's
account of a wolf-hunt, the skidstaff of the hunter is
not commonly furnished with a spear-head ; and the
wolf, as he sits with his back broken by a blow with
the staff, is after due denunciation of himself and his
forefathers, Anally despatched with the knife which
every Lapp and peasant carries suspended from his
belt ; or by a ball from the rifle which the Lapp
hunter there frequently carries on his back. To
strike at the head of the wolf with the skidstaff, says
Friis, is of no avail, for the wolf knows how to parry
and seize it with his teeth. Yet O. R. Ilederstrom,
in the Swedish Sporting-Society's Journal for 1879,
states that in Tornelapmark, the most northerly part
of Swedish Lapland, an inch-thick skidstaff, without
spear, is the only weapon used ; and that a blow or
two with it, after it has broken his back, is usually
enough to kill a wolf — there a cowardly animal,
rarely showing fight in self-defence. But, as Malm,
quoted by Dtihen, relates, a slightly wounded wolf
will sometimes turn upon his assailant, especially if
he chances to stumble ; then a fierce fight ensues, in
which however, the Lapp's thick skin coat affords
better protection against the wolfs fangs than the
wolf's against the Lapp's strong, sharp-pointed
knife.

Outside the boundaries of Lapland wolves are not
numerous in Sweden ; nor even within the lower
forested tracts those boundaries enclose, except
during winter, after some portion of them have
followed the reindeer herds thither from the Lapp
mountains, which are their proper resort. They
infest chiefly the three northernmost provinces of
Sweden, Norrbotten, Vesterbotten, and Ostersund,
south of which they are rarely found. Ostersund, the
most southern of these provinces, includes the wild
mountainous tracts of Jemtland and Herjedal, and

though ranged by a few Lapps along its Norwegian
border, has no part of its area nominally included
within Lapland proper, yet is apparently far more
infested by wolves than Vesterbotten, whose lapp-
marks adjoin it to the north. But these, though of
great extent, constitute the smaller part of Swedish
Lapland ; and it is in the lappmarks of Norrbotten — •
Pite, Sule, and especially Tome — that both wolves-
and reindeer most numerously abound. Thus in
Norrbotten's Ian, and of course chiefly in its three
lappmarks, there were, according to the premiums-
paid by the State for the destruction of predacious-
animals, during the four years of 1S76 to 1879-
inclusive, sixty-nine wolves killed ; in Ostersund's,
fifty-six ; in Vesterbotten's, sixteen ; and throughout
the rest of the kingdom, only six, comprising a total
of one hundred and forty-seven. During the five
years of 1S81-18S5, the number destroyed through-
out all Sweden was one hundred and seventy-one;
and during 1 871-187 5, two hundred and twenty-
nine ; but during the ten years terminating with
1865, no fewer than four hundred and thirty-seven
wolves were killed in the province of Norrbotten
alone. There also in the course of the same period
seven hundred and eighty-seven gluttons, and two
hundred and fifty-seven bears were destroyed ; while
on the other hand, the number of reindeer slaughtered
in the same time and place by such beasts of prey,
was stated at about five thousand.

The part of Norrbotten most exposed to the
ravages of wolves is Tornis lappmark, which com-
prises the two parishes of Enontekis and Jukkasjarvi,.
where, says Herr Hederstrom, the Jagtmaster or chief,
ranger of the district, the wolf may be considered to
have its especial resort. This wide territory, the-
largest of the lappmarks, with an area of 7612 square
miles, consists mainly of high, bleak, treeless and
comparatively level table-land, ranged over during
winter by nomadic Lapps, with their great herds of
reindeer, but vacated on the approach of summer
by both, who pass over into Norway, and remain
there till the autumn, thus reversing the usual custom,
of the more southerly Swedish Lapps, who during
summer graze their herds on the mountains, and
towards winter begin their descent into the forests
below, where they remain till spring. In winter
therefore, the high lands of Tornis are numerously
bespread with the returned herds ; the number of
reindeer belonging to it exceeding that of any other
lappmark ; its share of the 123,000 which all
Norrbotten contained in 1879 being 55,000, although
Tornis forms only a fourth part of the entire area of
the province's lappmarks; while the total number
of reindeer throughout the whole of Swedish.
Lapland has been estimated at only 220,800. This,
abundance of reindeer during winter in Tornis
lappmark is evidently a chief reason why their
natural enemies, the wolves, also abound there at
that time, for they numerously follow the herds both,

232

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SI P.

into Norway and back. They are favoured also by
the nature of the country, over whose unsheltered
plateaus the winds sweep with a force which com-
presses the snow, so that it gives firm footing to the
wolf, and thus precludes the possibility of over-
taking it on snovv-^kates. Also the Lapps are
accounted incompetent marksmen and their rifles
equally inefficient.

Encouraged by such conditions, and also, it appears,
by the apathy and neglect of the Lapps, in 1879 the
number of wolves on this tract, or part of it, had so
greatly increased that, as stated by Herr Hederstrom,
they ran in packs from fifteen to forty, and destroyed
thousands of reindeer, as they had done during the
previous two years— packs more numerous and de-
struction greater than had been heard of for some
years before. The report of enquiry respecting the
prevalence of wolves in Enontekis, made about
the same time at the instance of the Jagtmaster,
supplies some interesting particulars on the subject
of these ravenous animals. Six years before few
wolves were found there, but they had since greatly
increased, and it was estimated that at least a hun-
dred prowled over the parish ; packs of three to
fifteen had been seen since the middle of September.

They remain within the parish all the year
through, following the reindeer herds on their way
to Norway up to the mountain ridge, but not over it ;
supporting themselves bounteously during summer on
<sther prey, in the valley of Kumajoki, close under
the ridge ; forming quite distinct footpaths there, and
extending themselves along the banks of Konkama
river quite down to Xellotijarvi, a lake about sixteen
miles above Enontekis church. It is said that lairs
of wolves are sometimes found burrowed in the
sandhills, like those of the fox.

During the three preceding years it was calculated
that each year over a thousand reindeer had been
killed in the parish by wolves. The flesh of a deer
thus killed acquires a taste so very disagreeable that
people are very reluctant to eat it. Yet it is said by
Castren, quoted in Diiben's work, that the Fjell-
lapps of Finland have no need through all the winter
to slaughter deer for their own use ; they eat only
the reindeer killed and in part eaten by the wolves,
which choose the daintiest portions, and especially
the blood, which those Lapps, like the wolves them-
selves, prefer to drink raw.

When the wolf, says the writer of the report, on
giving chase has overtaken a reindeer, he seizes it by
the thigh, and soon as its speed slackens, grips it in
a twinkling by the throat, presently causing its
death, and consequent fall. He then tears out and
eats its tongue ; next he strips the flesh from the
loins nearest the root of the tail, and after eating that
continues his repast on the rest. If very hungry,
and undisturbed, he gorges the whole deer, its horns
included.

The reindeer, as stated by DUben, has the worst

chance of escape from the wolf on dark autumn
nights when the surface of the snow is sufficiently
frozen to bear the weight of the wolf, but not of the
deer. The assailant, however, instead of flight, some-
times meets with resistance and a repulse ; examples
being given of stags, and especially does with calves,
goring a wolf to death ; or even successfully defending
themselves with horns and hoofs against a couple of
bloodthirsty foes. Indeed it is said that the wolf
seldom ventures to rush upon a compact herd, but
when fear has dispersed it, pursues a deer that has
separated from the rest.

Wolves do not always remain continuously in the
same locality, but in many cases remove at
intervals from one tract to another, so that the
Lapps may sometimes, in certain parts, relax con-
srderably the constant watch of their herds. Ost-
gaard, a Norwegian writer, says that wolves some-
times flock together in great numbers, and especially
when about to migrate to another forest tract. Such
a gathering is there called a wolf-skred.

Except under the pinch of hunger, the wolf is
cowardly ; as Bishop Pontoppidan remarks, he is like
the arch-enemy of mankind, resist the brute and he
will flee from you ; a cow or even a goat, by such
action has put him to flight. It is very rarely,
therefore, that he ventures to attack a man ; but it is
recorded that a soldier, when returning from parade
across the ice over the great lake Storsjo, in Jemtland,
was killed and eaten by wolves, his skeleton being
found several days afterwards. Previous to that
occurrence, namely in 1821, nine or ten children
suffered the same fate in Dalecarlia and Gestrictland,
which adjoins it, from one and the same wolf, which
it was believed had been kept tame. Cases of
children being killed by wolves appear to be more
frequent in Finland ; two were reported by the
newspapers in 1881, as occurring within the province
of Abo ; the one, that of a boy ten years of age, who
had been sent to fetch a horse from an enclosure
within a forest adjacent to the cottage where he
dwelt.

Much superstition has been associated with the
wolf by Scandinavians as well as Lapps. The
malign glare of his eyes, his grin of rage and fear,
' his reputed habit of tearing the dead from their
graves, his revels on battle-fields, and the strange,
unearthly bowlings to which he gives utterance on
dark winter nights, all suggest the idea of a fiendish
nature, a being pertaining to the nether world. In
the old Norse mythology, he played, in accordance
with this character, a conspicuous part. Odin, the
god of battles, was attended by two wolves, and
doomed at length to be devoured by the great Fenris-
wolf (offspring of Loki, the Evil One), when the
flames of Ragniirok consumed the world. Two
ravenous wolves, personifications of the dark side of
nature, born of a hag who dwelt in Iron-wood, the
abode of witches, constantly pursued the sun and

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

233

moon with devouring intent ; and their insatiable
brother, the wolf-shaped Miinagarm, sought to fill
liis capacious maw with the blood of dying men.
. At the time when the Lapps were accredited with
magical powers it was believed that certain men of
the race could at pleasure transform themselves, as
well as others, into the shape of wolves and bears ;
and it has been asserted that hunters on flaying such
vulpine or ursine semblances have found a Lapp belt
under the skin. What multitudes of werewolves
during the Dark Ages, when light was dim, used to
flock together on Christmas eve to revel and do all
manner of mischief, has been made known by Olaus
miagnus ; and it has also been believed that witches,
among other fearful shapes, could assume that of the
wolf.

Even in later times the belief has prevailed that
Lapps had the power either to infest a district with
wolves or to draw them thence. In the Norske
Bygdesagn of L. Daa, published at Christiania in
1870, it is said that for centuries wolves had been a
great plague over all the bailiwick of Nyfylke,
excepting a large peninsula which was connected
with the mainland by a narrow isthmus called
Sandied. Across this isthmus, from time imme-
morial, a straw-rope had been stretched from sea to
sea, suspended on poles so Ivigh that the wolves could
not leap over it ; and under a rope thus extended,
experience had shown that they would not go. The
sheep, therefore, belonging to the peninsula could be
allowed to run out both summer and winter, which
M'as not the case with the numerous flocks on the
mainland, ^notwithstanding some annual contribu-
tions by the farmers there to a man for endeavouring
to keep the wolves aloof. But in 1777, " the year
when men write three sevens," a Lapp came to
Sandied, and learning the purpose of the rope,
offered for a moderate sum to clear the wolves from
the whole district, which, his terms being accepted,
was accordingly done. On being asked by the
farmers how long they might with certainty rely upon
the freedoniTfrom wolves, he answered. For the good
age of a man ; but quite possibly when seven and
seventy years had again elapsed, they might come
again. Remarkably enough, in 1854, a multitude of
wolves did again suddenly make their appearance in
Nyfylke, doing great mischief, and causing great
alarm among the people, to whom within man's
memory they had been unknown. An inscribed
silver tablet, bearing date 1777, hangs, or did hang,
in Roldal church, to which it was presented by the
parishioners of Hjelmaland, as a thank-offering for
the freedom from wolves they had that year enjoyed.
In common with the former practice of the Scan-
dinavian peasants, the Lapps refrain from speaking
of the wolf by its proper name, using as Von Diiben
remarks, various designations, which were first given
when he was believed to be an evil spirit, whom they
could coax into good behaviour. In Swedish folk-

lore they are the most unhallowed of all beasts of
prey ; their occult influence, or animus, most potent
for evil of all. They can revenge attempted injuries :
a man in Norway who had thus offended them
shortly afterwards broke his leg. Everywhere it is
known that the glance of a wolf, itself unseen, will
cause the person against whom it is directed to be-
come suddenly hoarse. Yet, if while living the wolf
was altogether evil, he was of some use when dead.
His skin formed, and continues to form, the warmest
of winter robes ; the Lapland naid when he used to
journey in quest of information to the land of the
dead, would probably never have come back if he
had not, as a preparation for the journey, partaken
of wolf's flesh ; a dose of the same, wind-dried and
pulverized, served to stimulate Norwegian appetites ;
and wolf's lung was a chief ingiedient of the com-
pound which Norwegian apothecaries formerly pre-
pared as a remedy for consumption.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Dr. Elkin, the astronomer of Yale University,
and formerly of the Cape of Good Hope, has, by a
long series of observations on the parallel of the star
Arcturus, arrived at the conclusion that it moves with
the inconceivable velocity of 38l?miles a second, that
is to say, it would traverse the distance from London
to Edinburgh between^two ticks of a watch. This is
twenty-one times faster than the speed of the earth
in Us orbit round the; sun. Dr. Elkin also finds that
Arcturus is so far away from us that his light,
travelling 190,000 miles a second, takes 181 years to
reach us.

A LUMINOUS 'outburst in the sun was observed
recently by M. Trouvelot, at Paris, First, a
luminous spot appeared on the disc of the sun near
its western limb. It was of a golden yellow tinge,
and shortly afterwards a companion spot appeared a
little above it. The spectroscope showed the first
spot to consist of a central eruption, from which
volcanic bombs were thrown to heights above the
chromosphere, where they seemed to rest as dazzling
balls. A few minutes later these were replaced by
brilliant jets or filaments. On the next morning the
eruption was seen to be diminishing, and it finally
ceased in the afternoon. There was no corresponding
magnetic perturbation observed at Kew.

A CURIOUS instance of one poison killing another
is reported from Yackandandah, Victoria, where Dr.
Mueller has recently administered strychnine in cases
of snake-bite. A solution of nitrate of strychnine in
240 parts of water, mixed with a little glycerine, is
prepared, and twenty minims injected hypodermi-
cally at intervals of ten to twenty minutes, according
to the virulence of the attack. In some cases a grain

234

BA Jin WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

of strychnine has been given thus within a few hours.
The .two poisons are antagonistic, and the character-
istic effects of the strychnine only show themselves
after the venom has been neutralised. The first
independent action of the drug is evinced by slight
muscular spasms, and the injections must then be
discontinued, unless after a time the snake poison
reasserts itself. So long as the latter is active the
strychnine can be applied in quantities which would
be fatal in the absence of the virus. Out of the
hundred patients treated this way, some of whom
were at the point of death, there was only one failure,
and that arose from the stoppage of the injections
after one and a quarter grains of strychnine were
administered. Any part of the body will serve for
the injection, but Dr. Mueller chooses a part near the
snake-bite.

A NEW patented process for producing photo-
graphs in natural colours has been brought out. No
claim is put forward to the production of the colours
on the negative, a feat which if not impossible has
never yet been accomplished. What the negative
does is to portray the colours of the original in their
proper relative gradation of tone, which is a develop-
ment of the " ortho-chromatic " process, as photo-
graphers term it. Having obtained the negative, the
next step is to get a print. This print is made to
undergo a special treatment, mechanical in its nature,
by which it receives the required colours. Only the
primary colours are used, every shade and gradation
of tone being secured by the negative. No artistic
skill is needed to apply the colours, but how it is
done is not explained. The final step consists in the
"fixing" of the prints, by which the colours are
rendered absolutely permanent. The prints are made
waterproof in the process, and can be mounted on
paper, card, glass, opal, or other material. The
process is the invention of a French photographer,
M. Victor Mathieu. The means being mechanical,
the cost is but slightly in excess of the ordinary
monochrome prints.

Mr. John Aitken has been investigating clouds
from the summit of the Rigi and Pilatus. He now
finds, as in former observations, that fog is intimately
dependent on the presence of dust particles in the air,
each of the invisible granules forming the nucleus of
a tiny head of water, these vesicles constituting in
the aggregat- clouds, mists, and their kindred. At
elevated situations the air is comparatively free from
dust, while lower down it is full of it. But while
clouds are passing over a peak the number ol
particles varies considerably. This, he discovers by
a series of carefully compiled data, is due to the fact
that the air entering into the clouds has forced itself
up from the valley below. Hence the mountain air
is pure or impure in exact accordance with the
amount of this lower-world current which has reached

it. When the cloud vanishes the ether resumes its-
old composition. Another curious fact just dis-
covered by the same indefatigable observer is that
the moment a cloud forms it begins to discharge its
contents in the shape of a steady shower of minute
drops. These drops are not capable of being appre-
ciated by the unassisted senses ; but by the " fog-
counter," an instrument of Mr. Aitken's invention,
the exact number falling on a given space can be
readily noted. What is still more curious is that
though the air is in such circumstances saturated with
damp, seats, stones, and other large objects near the
earth are perfectly dry, the drops being evaporated
by the radient heat of the ground ; but a pin's head
or other small object, not offering the same area, is in
these circumstances often covered with a minute
globule of water. The fact of a cloud thus beginning
to rain small drops whenever it is formed may
account for the disappearance of these vaporous
masses without any change in the wind or tempera-
ture. They gradually exhaust themselves.

M. Janssen, the enterprising French astronomer,
is not satisfied with the hope of building an astro-
nomical observatory on the summit of Mont Blanc,
for which the depth of snow is now being sounded by
a horizontal tunnel ; he aims at establishing another
at Tashkend, in Russian Turkestan, where the skies
are of a remarkable purity. The Governor of
Turkestan has found the money, and is taking an
intelligent interest in the work. Observations of
the spectroscope will be one of the specialities of the
place.

The specific influence exerted by the eucalyptus-
tree on fevers has long been well-known. Whole
districts in Algeria and other countries which were
formerly mere haunts of malaria are now, since the
"blue-gum" has been planted, perfectly healthy.
In Australia it has been found that green branches
placed in a room act as a powerful disinfectant. In
cases of scarlet fever, if the branches be placed under
the bed, the bedding undergoes a thorough disinfec-
tion, the volatile vapour penetrating and saturating
the mattress and every other article in the room.

Herr Prausnitz has recently collected the dust
in various compartments of trains, which often
convey patients from Berlin to Meran, and inocu-
lated a number of guinea-pigs with it. Two out of
five compartments so examined were found to
contain the phthisis bacillus ; the dust of one
rendered three out of four guinea-pigs tuberculous ;
that of the other, two.

The action of sea-water on cements has been
investigated by M. Candlot with important practical
results. He finds that the sulphate of lime derived
from the decomposition of the sulphate of magnesia.

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G O SSI P.

235

'by the lime salts of the cement combines with
aluminate of lime to give a double crystalline salt
containing half its weight of water. The crystallisa-
tion of a salt so full of water— or so " hydrated," to
use the chemical term — involves considerable swelling,
•which accounts for the breaking up of cements in
marine work, such as piers, breakwaters, and the
like.

A very suggestive paper has just been published by
Mr. James Weir (read before the Institute of Marine
Engineers) entitled "Steam Engine Efficiency: a
comparison of Nature's Engine and Modern Prac-
tice."

ZOOLOGY.

On the Burrowing Habits of the Genus
Testacella (Cuvier).— Respecting Mr. Horsman's
remarks on my paper published last March in the
"Naturalist," "On the Burrowing Habits of Certain
Land and Freshwater Mollusca," it appears very
evident to me that his conclusions were drawn from
insufficient observations. Mr. Horsman informs me
that his observations extended over a period of five
or six months, and were carried out under artificial
•conditions. Under these circumstances, it is hardly
fair, I think, to criticise observations made from
nature. " A fairly heavy soil " kept in a " large old
4ank in an outhouse " would soon become caked and
very firm, and consequently it would be almost
impossible for a mollusc to get below twelve inches,
in fact I do not contend that in heavy soils molluscs
do burrowlto great depth. Where I saw T. halio-
iidca, it was in a light loamy soil. Mr. Horsman
speaks of the average depth as five or six inches ; now
liad he paid the slightest attention to the habits of
■our British slugs in their natural conditions he would
know that most of them burrow to that depth when
•depositing their eggs, as has been described by
Moquin Tandon; and other writers. I have not had
the opportunity of studying T. scutulum, but from
what I know of ;the habits of T. haliotidea, I cannot
see any valid reason to doubt the accuracy of Mr.
Quilter's observations, nor do I agree that Dr.
Jefi"rey's statement is open to question. The other
records mentioned in my paper are all from well-
known conchologists and careful observers, and I
fail to see any cause for doubting them. — W. E.
jCoUi7ige.

Early Butterflies.— Mr. Lowe, a short time
ago, stated that on the 3rd of June, he took a freshly
emerged specimen of C. edusa, and he asked whether
that is not very early for its appearance. If he
thinks it was freshly emerged simply because it was
fresh-looking, I think he may be mistaken, for as a
rule edusa hybernates as an imago, though Newman

does speak of one that, contrary to the habit of the
species, passed the winter as a chrysalis. I say
I think Mr. Lowe may have been mistaken, for on
referring to my note-book for the current year, I see
it was on the 8th of June that I saw the first speci-
mens of P\ cardiii, an insect which also hybernates in
the perfect state, and I find I made the following
note, " Saw four or five V. cardui, all looked remark-
ably fresh and as if just out of the chrysalis." I have
no reason, however, to suppose that these butterflies
did not — as the species does — hybernate as imagos,
nor do I think it likely that Mr. Lowe's edusa had
not followed the usual habit of that species. Cardui
and atalanta were very numerous here this year,
especially in the larval condition. I found the
former feeding on both the common nettles, also on
Carduus arvensis^ C. pycnocephaluSy but I think it
seemed to prefer the small nettle ( U. urens) to any
other food. Curiously enough I took one half-grown
larva off the common mallow and reared it solely on
that. It preferred blossoms to leaves and would not
eat the latter when flowers were to be had. As I
am on the subject of butterflies, I may mention that
C. edusa has been scarce hereabouts this autumn. I
have traversed the Downs in all directions almost
daily since the beginning of September, and during
my excursions I have visited most of the clover-fields
within several miles of this place, the result being
that I found this insect plentiful at only one spot.
This was a small clover-field of about six acres, near
the lighthouse W. of Beachy Head. Some six or
eight visits to this resulted in my securing about 120.
Twenty-two of these were females, the rest males.
Of the former two were very fine examples of the
variety Helice. Early in the month they were in
very fine condition except that about one in six had
a large notch in one or two of its wings. At first I
could not account for this, but I soon discovered that
the injuries were caused by wheatears, which fre-
quented the field, and which poised on the top of a
stalk of clover, or hovering kestrel-like about a foot
above the level of the field, kept a sharp look-out for
passing butterflies, and whenever edusa came near
enough the bird darted at it like an arrow, and
though I never saw any butterflies secured I could
see plainly that that was how they got so damaged.
On one occasion, the insect when attacked mounted
like a heron pursued by a peregrine. It was most
interesting to note the extremely rapid movements of
ediisa as if fled from and dodged its pursuer with a
celerity that was marvellous. When they had
mounted until they were almost invisible the bird
suddenly relinquished the chase, and dropping
quickly to the ground was instantly followed by the
butterfly, which immediately resumed its rapid quest-
ing flight over the clover, just as if nothing had
happened. I will only add one more note. About
three weeks ago a very fine healthy caterpillar
of D. gain (found on the Downs) was brought to

236

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

me, and it has since safely pupated. — R. B. P.,
Eastboiirite.

New Rotifers. — '* Distyla tnusicola," pages 205
and 206 should read " Distyla irmscicola " — that is, the
moss-dwelling Distyla. As printed, the name has no
meaning, and in an original description the error is
of some little importance. I must apologise for the
trouble given you, and I fear I must have overlooked
the error, so far as that one occurring in the text, in
my revision of the proof. — D. Bryce.

Aphides and their Monuments. — Being but a
poor entomologist — if indeed an entomologist at all —
I am not ashamed, after a diligent but fruitless search
through the few books on the subject within my
reach, to ask information from those of your corre-
spondents who may be more advanced in the study,
on a few points which have interested me greatly,
and from the observation of which — thanks to my
ignorance, I suppose — I have experienced, this
summer, many a delightful thrill such as some lovers
of nature are privileged to feel when a new light
" beats " upon them. I was hunting very successfully
for the so-called leaf-insect (fan-insect I think would
be a better name), the beautiful " abnormal " larva of
the Aphis aceris, and was led to the examination of
sycamore leaves, which also supplied abundance of
specimens. But besides these there were numerous
full-winged aphides quite dead, and most of them
perfect ; with others in various stages of dry dilapi-
dation, each seated on and firmly fixed to a flat,
circular bag which under high magnifying power
proved to be loosely woven of hair-like web. In
some of these bags I found a living larva resembling
a minute white nut-maggot. There was no discover-
able hole in the bag by which it could have entered,
and how it came there is as great a puzzle to me as
the apple inside the dumpling was to his majesty
George III., and possibly as easily explained by the
initiated. Any way, this fairly-like aphis on her
disc as she sits there a tiny monument to her tiny
self, forms an exceedingly pretty object for the
microscope under a two-inch objective. Here is an
epitaph for her.

" Praises on tombs are trifles idly spent ; '
A fly's own self is her best monument."

Let me add that this is a true aphis, milk tubes
and all, and not a coccus, I would ask one more
question concerning some eggs which I find on the
sycamore leaf. They resemble those of the lace-
winged fly, but instead of occurring singly there are
about a dozen on as many pedicels which combine
into a single stem about i| of an inch in length, and
this is again divided into as many rootlets, which are
cunningly fastened to the leaf. To any kindly-
disposed entomologist I would say r.s.v.p. — 7".
E. A., Diss.

BOTANY.

The White Flower Question. "Will Mr.
Davy, the author of the delightfully impartial and
non-faddist paper in the September number, page
2X1, kindly answer the following queries relative to
the above subject : — i. In the Cornish districts which
are inordinately prolific in the way of white varia-
tions, does the heather bloom early or late as
compared with that growing further north : — 2. Is
the atmosphere of the said regions unduly moist, or
possibly charged with saline substances wafted
invisibly over from the adjacent ocean. — P. Q.
Keegan.

Extraordinary^Growth of Wild Rose Hips. —
A short time ago a most interesting example was
brought before my notice of a wild rose hip, the
extraordinary size of ^which, together with its general
appearance, not only beat that of any I had ever seen
before, but completely astonished me. So strange
did this fruit appear that I think it worth while to
bring a brief description of it before the readers of
Science-Gossip, in the hopes that some one may be

Fig. 197. — Abnormal growth of Rose Hip,

able to give me some reason for such an unusually
enormous structure. The hip in question was one of
two that a gardener, belonging to the premises^ in
which I was staying, brought me to see from the
estate of Lord Bramwell at Four Elms, Kent. Both
of the hips were large, but the one the man gave me
to keep was by far the better of the two ; so of that
one alone I mean to speak. In general appearance
the fruit might easily have been likened to a
ripe tomato, so far as its colour and texture, were
concerned, for it was of the most brilliant orange red ,

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

237

and of a very succulent texture. A closer look,

however, showed that it was veritably and indeed a

hip. From the centre of the fruit, on its upper

surface, rose the remains of the five sepals (the length

of which was an inch and a quarter), within which

lay a mass of dead stamens, some of which showed

the last remnants of their anthers, shrivelled, and of

a pale brown colour, still resting on the filaments.

Below these calyx-remains lay the hip itself, the

circumference of which measured four inches ; the

depth, three quarters of an inch, measuring from the

base of the sepals to the point of juncture of the hip

and the stalk. The shape was more that of an

ellipse than anything else ; the surface smooth and

shiny, the colour an extremely rich orange red.

Comparing this with an ordinarily large hip, its

magnitude strikes one as being really marvellous, and

I shall feel only too glad if any reader can afford me

any reason for such an unusual growth. Can it be

that soil causes it? That Nature plays no " freak "

with this rose-bush is proved by the fact that every

year a few hips, of an equally large size, are found on

it. The bloom of the plant is very large, single, and

either white or very pale pink in colour, and the

bush grows naturally ' close to the kitchen-garden on

the above estate. I made all enquiries I could about

the plant, and was told it was a genuine wild rose

which had grown in that spot, and developed this

great size of bloom and fruit naturally. This year

there are but a few hips on the plant. Such a

-structure has interested me keenly, and I close this

brief account of it with the express hope that others

may be interested in hearing of it as well ; and any

information as to whether such hips have been seen

iefore or not will be most gladly received. — K. E.

Styan.

The Common Teasel. — Just outside the window
of my sitting-room is a plant not often seen, I think,
in a semi-suburban garden-bed. It is a tall and
shapely common teasel. It came of its own sweet
will, and has been left to grow as it liked, until some
forty blossom-heads have girdled themselves with
mauve flowers whose circles, starting midway round
the dense spike, retreat upwards and downwards in
the oddest fashion, giving an effect not easily de-
scribed. I do not know whether anyone has
explained this curious mode of flowering of the teasel.
Nor is this the only problem the plant presents to the
botanist. What special merit is there in the flowers
which should cause them to be guarded like an eastern
monarch's harem, or like the Emperor of China, or
the Lama of Thibet ? First, the whole plant is more
or less covered with prickles, not very sharp, but
<juite sufficiently disagreeable to ward off the bite of a
sheep or cow, one;would think. Secondly, the spikes
bristle with spiny bracts, projecting so far beyond the
flowers that the only insects which dare to aHght are
humble-bees, of which at least two or three may be

seen travelling systematically round and round the
flower circles. They are of two kinds. I am no
entomologist, so cannot give their names, but one,
the rarer, is small and brown, the other black with
red tail. The large golden-banded humble-bee does
not seem to visit the teasel at all, though I do not see
why it should find more difficulty in getting honey
from the flowers than its smaller relatives. Lastly,
the conformation of the leaves offers an efficient
protection against ants and other small insects which
might scale the stem and rob the sweets reserved for
the humble-bee. The pairs of opposite leaves are
connate, i.e., their blades unite, base to base, forming
little basins which contain rain-water even in dry
weather. As a child, I always thought they were
specially provided to give drink to the wee birds in
summer-time ; I do not think so now, but I am just
as sure that they do not take this shape by accident,
that these reservoirs benefit the plant in some way,
probably by the exclusion of noxious insects.
Possibly, like the sundew, the plant may also benefit
by the death of drowned intruders, but I have made
no observations on this point. A slight change in the
shape of the plant's defensive armour, the curving of
the bracts, has made one of its cultivated varieties of
great use to cloth-weavers. Cloth-making, helped
no doubt by the layers of fuller's-earth found beneath
the soil of this district, was formerly a staple
manufacture, but none is now made, and the fuller's-
teasel has disappeared from the neighbourhood, if,
indeed, it was ever cultivated, and the common
teasel seems to have no rival in the hedgerows and
thickets, where it rears its spiny heads in defiance of
wind and weather until autumn has withered their
bracts and scattered their seeds, and then they find
way into winter bouquets and bird-stuffers' " land-
scapes," and so renew, if not their; youth, at least
their usefulness, to some people's way of thinking.
But the dead brown stalks and prickly heads will
never, to my mind, do more than suggest the delicate
tints and quaint conceits of the plant in full bloom. —
M. E. Pope.

Veronica Chamcedrys. — I find the upper leaves
of the germander speedwell have been aborted and
unnaturally developed by a small red grub. "Will
any correspondent interested in such matters let me
know its scientific name and life-history. I enclose
specimens, which I fear will be of very little use when
they reach you. — E. Adrian Woodniffe-Peacock,
Cadney Vicarage, Brigg.

Bacteria as Feeders of Leguminous
Plants. — At a recent meeting of the Alford Field
Club and Scientific Society, Mr. William Wilson,
Alford, N.B., dwelt upon investigations on the above.
After touching upon the investigations and opinions
of Malpighi, Treviranus, A. P. De CandoUe, Erikson,
Frank and Ward, he entered into the conclusion of

238

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Hellriegel, which had now been generally accepted,
viz., that the bacteria possessed the power of absorb-
ing free nitrogen to feed the plants ; and explained
certain experiments which he saw conducted at
Rothamsted to test this view, which experiments
made him entertain the idea that it was correct. The
next point touched upon was an experiment which he
was conducting with an improved Lathyrus (Z.
sylvestris , "SVagn.). Great results were claimed by
Dr. Wagner, the improver of the plant, from Lathynis
sylvestris (Linn.) ; but the experiment, along with
others in Britain, had been practically a failure. The
grounds of the improvement rested on the great
power of the plant to absorb nitrogen as mentioned.
The failure of the plant in this climate led him to
inquire into the matter and to compare investiga-
tions which he had made on native leguminous
plants regarding the Bacteria. It appears that the
plants produce, or Bacteria is produced, in best form
where the plants are growing under favourable
conditions for their development, thus assisting
prolific development and not extension of geo-
graphical area, as is the case with bulbs and creepers
on grasses, etc. This was partly confirmed from
observations taken from the broom and needle-
greenweed, and on a very prolific dwarf pea, which
produced a great development of Bacteria, as well as
coinciding with results gained at Rothamsted,
where a cultivated plant did not produce Bacteria
on arid soil, but when garden humus was added
i^acteria was produced.

To Lincolnshire Botanists.— We have pleasure
in inserting the following letter : — " I am busy col-
lecting materials for a ' Flora of Lincolnshire.'
W^ould you put a notice in your widely-read paper to
say I shall be most happy to receive voucher speci-
mens, with localities, dates, &c., for any of our less
common or rare plants. Unless I am dealing with
past-masters, mere lists are of little use, though
thankfully received." — E. Adrian Woodniffe-Pcacock,
Cadney Vicarage, Brigg.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

" Sea-Fowling," — I was both surprised and sorry
to see the letter s-igned, "Sea-Fowler" last month,
and I would fain hope that this gentleman's notion
of the way to spend a "happy Saturday" will not
commend itself to many of your readers. When he
tells with evident glee that one gunner shot twenty-
seven dozen and five harmless birds at one shot,
the feeling in the minds of most persons will hardly
be one of admiration, but rather of deep disgust,
especially when it is remembered that in addition to
the number of birds killed, many more must have got
away wounded, to die a lingering and painful death.
When I read his description of how he shot one of those
noble birds, a wild swan, and wounded another which
got away and was caught (evidently still alive) next
day, I did not wish this self-complacent gentleman

any harm, at least not much, but I could not help-
thinking that if he had lain helpless through a long
frosty winter's night with a gunshot wound, and a
broken limb, he would look upon his pleasant day's-
sport, as he calls it, in a different light. I suppose
there will always be a certain number of persons who
find their pleasure in killing for killing's sake, but
they should not be encouraged to make a boast of it. —
W. Ward, Southampto7i.

Cleaning Varnish.— Can you, or any of your
readers, tell me of a good method of cleaning the
balsam, asphalte varnish, etc., offspoiled microscope
slides, in order to use the glass slips again ? I find it a
very slow process scraping them clean one by one. — "<
A. Verinder.

Optical Effect, Science Gossip for August,
p. i88.— The optical effect described by H. J. T.
is well known as " Purkinje's figures" (see Huxley's-
Elementary Lessons in Physiology). It is not quite
easy to understand without some knowledge of the
anatomy of the eye, but, briefly, is due to this : the
optic nerve, which enters the eyeball at the back (like
the stalk of an apple), spreads out over the back of
the eye into a delicate nervous layer, the retina.
Minute blood-vessels enter the eye at the same spot,
and ramify over the inner surface of the retina.
When a beam of light is thrown very obliquely into
the eye (as H. J. T. describes), these branching blood--
vessels are seen, by means of the retina behind
them.— y)/. E. Pope,

Snakes and Parasites. — There are several
species of ticks parasitic on snakes, but it would be
impossible to identify them from Mr. Tilly's note.
Judging from his description, the insects found on the
sloughs, may, I think, be mites so often found to be
troublesome to cage-birds when due attention is not
given to the cleanliness of the cages. — J. Macnaiight
Campbell.

Floral Guide to Kent. — Will some one tell
M. B. W. by whom Cowell's "Floral Guide to E.
Kent is published, and also the price of the same ?
It was mentioned by "Ede" under the heading
" Flora of Kent " in the May number of Science .
Gossip. — M. B. Wigan.

The White-flower Question. — A London
reader of Science-Gossip- sends me a very interesting
letter on this subject. He speaks of having found in
North Wales, last autumn, Gentiaiia amarella and the
plume thistle both bearing pure white flowers. Sym-
phytium officinale, which I spoke of last month as occa-
sionally bearing white flowers in this neighbourhood,
he mentions as growing around Bath much more
frequently than the purple variety. In Switzerland
and the south of France he has met the lesser peri-
winkle bearing blue, red, and white flowers, all
growing together. The most important part of this
letter relates a curious experience with three plants of
Ca7)ipafiula latifolia someone had given him bearing
pink bells. He planted all three in his garden, and
at the end of the season carefully saved the seed they
had produced. From these he had, the following
year, plants bearing white, light and dark blue
flowers, and only just one or two plants with pink
ones. Since then he has grown all shades and
varieties of colour, but never since the first seed
sowing any pink. To all these interesting remarks he
adds that he has more than once found Anthyllis
z'ldneraria bearing white flowers. I, too, have
found this plant with white flowers, but only very
sparingly. Besides those plants mentioned last month

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

239

as sporting into white I have found :— Vinca minor y
Stachys betonica, Stachys amhigtia, Scilla nutans, and
Luzula campestris. — Fred. H. Davey.

Curious Phenomenon among Rooks. — The
remarks in last mouth's Science Gossip on mortality
among rooks during the past winter, recalls a curious
phenomenon which occurred in this neighbourhood
about six years ago among a colony of the same birds.
The rookery in question contained at its most
flourishing state, from thirty to forty-five nests. During
the spring of 1886, the birds commenced nesting
operations in season, and by the 'middle of March
most of the ill-constructed domiciles had approached
completion. But one morning (I think it was March
26th) a painful surprise awaited the proprietor of the
estate. Not a caw or sound from the sable tenants of
the tall elms and ash broke in on his matutinal
slumbers, and on proceeding outdoors he found his
feathered friends had taken their flight. By some
unaccountable means they had suddenly awoke to the
fact that they possessed wings. As though the place
was under a ban, the whole race of crows kept clear of
it. Until the spring of 18S9 were the old haunts thus
deserted, and then, as if by a preconcerted plan, one
morning a score of the noisy birds alighted on the
tree-tops with much clattering and ado. They held
what seemed to be a conference of some kind.
Chattering, flitting from branch to branch and tree to
tree, and a series of graceful gyrations over the tree-
tops continued until noon, when the proprietor had
the joy of seeing the foundations of a new colony
being laid. To-day the rookery is lin a thriving
condition, not containing so many tenants, it is true,
as the one that existed there prior to 1SS6, but at the
same time running it very close. — Fred. H. Davey.

Large Fungi. — The following is an account of large
■growths of two fungi. A specimen of Lycoperdon
gigantewn which I found at Kew (18S9), was 11
inches long, and weighed 36 ounces ; another of the
same I found at Hampstead this year was 8 inches in
diameter, 22^ in circumference and weighing 23^
ounces. A very large fungus was that of Phallus
impudicus, whicli was Qj inches high, pileus 2 inches
long, and stipe i^ inches in diameter. This I found
in a copse at Highgate. — Henry E. Griset.

Indian Lizards. — When I was a lad I had a
■collection of Indian stories, I think the name of the
author was Addison. In it there was a statement to
the effect that the common house-lizard, if it happens
to run over the skin, emits an acrid liquid which
causes a burning sensation and raises a blister. Now,
I have been in the North-West Provinces of India for
over eight years and must have caught and handled at
least 200 house-lizards, and I have never found one
which emitted any liquid whatever ; more than that,
at one time a semi-tame lizard lived on my bedstead,
and repeatedly awakened me by running over my face
after mosquitoes, with no result. I should be glad to
know, therefore, if the statement is entirely mythical,
or true for any sort of lizard. — J. R. Holt.

Remarkable Hen's Egg. — In reply to your July
correspondent who enquires as to curious contents of
hens' eggs, I may say that I have just seen something
far more curious than a pin inside of one, viz : — a
fleshy substance very nearly resembling a heart in
shape. The egg containing it was laid by a blue
Andalusian hen belonging to Mr. E. Childs, No. II
North Parade, Allerton, Bradford, on the 6th of March
last, and weighed, when whole, 4J ounces. It
contained both white and yolk beside the heart. The
hen is a last year's pullet, is perfectly healthy and has

reared two broods since laying the abnormal egg.
When the egg was found a string or vein of the heart-
like object was protruding through the thick end, and
the egg was broken open in the presence of several
witnesses, including a medical gentleman. It is now
preserved in spirits of wine, and can be seen at the
above address, and I should like some of your readers
to explain it. — Jesse Mitchell.

A Counting Chimpanzee. —The Zoological
Gardens have sustained a serious bereavement in the
death of " Sally," the black-faced chimpanzee from
the west coast of Gaboon, who for eight years has
entertained many thousands of folk of all ages, and
of both sexes, at the popular gardens in Regent's
Park. The intelligent " Sally " has been the subject
of comment amongst men of science, of sages and
philosophers, and possibly theologians. Perhaps the
most remarkable of her feats was that of counting.
" Sally," in the presence of a crowded room, when
called upon, say for bits of straw in her cage, would
give you the exact number you named, up to ten,
and the keeper has found her, when alone, count in
this way up to twenty. If one of the public asked
for five, six, or nine straws, or whatever cjuantity up
to ten, she would pick each deliberately up, without
any mistake, put one by one in her mouth until all
were got together, and then give them into your
hand. If asked for a " button-hole," she would take
a straw, break off part of the stalk, and put the ear
into the button-hole of the keeper's coat. She knew
right from left ; would use a spoon, and sip with it
until the cup was empty. She was four years old
when first brought to this country, and was therefore
twelve years of age.

Poison in Laburnum Seeds. — At Birmingham
seven children were taken to Queen's Hospital suffer-
ing from the effects of having eaten seeds taken from
the pods of a laburnum tree. They each showed
symptoms of poisoning, and emetics had to be ad-
ministered. Two of them were so ill that they had
to be detained. The children had been playing in
the churchyard at St. James's Church, Edgbaston,
and had picked the pods from a laburnum tree and
eaten them, not knowing that they were injurious.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish SciENCE-GossiP earlier than formerly, wc cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered axe
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of our £ratuiicnis
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

Vf-E request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To our Recent Exchangers. — We are willing to be helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

R. H. Japp. — Apply to Mr. J. King, Seahorse House,
Portland Road, London ; or Mr. A. J. R. Sclater, Teign-
mouth, Devon.

A Generalised Index.— It is very pleasant to find how

240

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

deeply our numerous readers are int rested in the subject of
another General Index. We are aware the vols, of ScrENCE-
Gossip for the last twenty-five years are the best Cyclopaedia
of Natural History in the world.

D. H. Stuart Sthwakt. — The specimen you sent us of the
abnormal var. of the white willow [Sali.x alba] was very
interesting, and v/e are much obliged to you for it.

D. H. S. S. — "Spiritualism" and "Mesmerism" hardly
come within the scope of Science-Gossip; but we think the
Secretary of the London Spirituali-t Society would siipply
you, if asked, with a li^t of the best books on those subjects.

F. H. P. CosTE. — Your letter must someway have gone
wrong, for we have not received it. Please send us your
paper.

W. Wilson.— Thanks for j-our notes. We will look them up.

EXCHANGES.

I HAVE twenty-two birds' eges (various) for exchange.
Wanted, fossils from any formation except carboniferous. —
Walter C. Shields, 30 Garturk Street, Crossbill, Glasgow.

Dui'LiCATE clutches of curlew, shieldrake, carrion crow,
ring ouzel, b. h. gull, sandpiper, snipe, jackdaw, magpie, tree
pipit; eggs of bittern, teal, ptarmigan, &c., side-blown.
Wanted, clutches, side-blown and with data, numerous sorts.
— F. W. Paple, 62 Waterloo Street, Bolton.

Fossils from Barton clay, Purbeck limestone, Kimmeridge
clay, and Portland oolite, offered in exchange for those of
other localities, rocks, minerals, &c. Apply — A. E. Salter,
8 Venetia Road, Fin^bury Park, London, N.

Offered, Alyca^us sculptilis, Hydroccsna Blanfordiana,
Hybocystis gravida, Pttpina artata, Diplommatina angulata,
Cycloplwrus speciosa, Otoponia c/mtsum, Asshninen Fran-
cesiie, Bithynia jnargiiiata, Paludoimcs regiilata, Pabidma
heliciformis, P. doliarus, Melania lirata, M . tuherculata,
Clausilia insignis, from India. (Jfters wanted in mitra, mar-
ginella, or rare land shells. — Miss Linter, Arragon Close,
Twickenham.

Wanted, foreign beetles, set or unset, in exchange for many
species of British land and freshwater shells, lepidoptera, or
good foreign postage stamps. — Mrs. Smith, Monmouth House,
Monmouth Street, Topsham, South Devon.

Plaaorbis corneiis, var. albida, Zoiiitcs excavatus, var.
vitrina, Urtio pectorwn. Vertigo pygmtea. Wanted, foreign
land or freshwater shell*, or rare British. — William Moss,
13 Milton Place, Ashton-under-Lyne.

Numerous Ceylon shells, also fifty li-inch corked glass
tubes for exchange. Wanted, foreign shells. Please send
lists. — J. E. Cooper, 93 Southwood Lane, Highgate, N.

Wanted, various species of British vertigos. Good ex-
change in other species and varieties of British land and
freshwater shells. — E. W. Swanton, Doddington, Sittingbourne.
Offeked, a mounted and labelled collection of about thirty
British land and freshwater shells, in exchange for British
birds' eggs not in collecuon. Full list given on application. —
E. W. bwanton, Doddington, Sittingbourne.

Offered, Donax scortum. Helicon pectinata, Siphotiaria
concinna, Trochus impervitis, from Port Elizabeth. What
offers in British marine, land and freshwater, and foreign shells
not in collection? — Mrs. Heitland, The Priory, Shrewsbury.

Quadrant tandem tricycle, No. 15, balls, dress-guards,
accessories complete. Will exchange for superior microscope.
— Kirk, 20 Lombard Street, West Bromwich.

Microscope, Beck's star, two eye-pieces, i, i, and \ correc-
tion objectives, double nose-piece, air-pump for mounting
objects. Carpenter's " Microscope," and several other books,
together or separate. Engineering books wanted. — Taylor,
26 Marchmont Street, London, W.C.

Would anyone having duplicate natural history specimens
or curiosities to spare, towards the formation of a small school
museum, kindly communicate with — J. A. Ellis, i Pomona
Place, FuUiam, London, S.W.

Offered, Wood's " Insects at Home," and Stainton's
"Manual of British Butterflies and Moths," 2 vols., both
equal to new, published at 10s. td. each. — H. Baker-Browne,
Sherrington House, St. Philip's Road, Norwich.

Zonites excavatus, var. vitrina. An. lacustris, Liin. glabra,
Hel. cricetorum, vars. instabilis and leucozona, Bui. ac7it74S,
and vars. bizona, strigata, and articulata. What offers in
other shells for the above? — R. Cairns, Queen Street, Hurst,
Ashton-under-Lyne.

Dui'LICATes of the following numbers, 8th edition London
Catalogue: 39, 46, 100, 14;^, 161, 229, 286, 317, 379, 475, 483,
486, 487, 536, 543, 552, 562, 698, 917, 944, 1239, 3584, 1663,
1688, and others, tor which I would exchange, in equal
number, plants locally abundant not occurring in Yorkshire, or
offers. — J. Beanland, 7 Uastler Road, Shipley, Yorks.

I CAN send rare British shells in return for good mounts of
rocks and diatoms, or natural history specimens. — T. E.
Sclater, Bank Street, Teignmouth.

About 1500 herbarium specimens of plants and grasses,
chiefly British and Continental, but many from N. America,
Asia, China, Australia, Siberia, &c., to exchange for an eight
or ten-drawer insect cabinet. Fuller particulars on application
to R. Standen, 40 Palmerston Street, Moss Side, Manchester.

For exchange, rare birds' eggs, single or in clutches.
Wanted, guillemots, razorbills, gannet, cormorant, skylark,
pied wagtail, warblers, tits, hawks, swift, martin, wren, &c. —
Jas. Ellison, Steeion, Keighley, Yorks.

Avicula hirundo, Isocaidia cor, Mangelia striolaia, wanted
in return for rare British and foreign shells, geological speci-
mens. Mutual exchange.— A. J. R. Sclater, M.C.S., 23 Bank
Street, Teignmouth.

Wanted, Planorbis lineatus, PI. Jiitidus, PL nautileus,
PI. parvus, PI. spirorbis, PI. contplanatiis, Physa hypyionim^
Lijiiiura gluti?iosa, L. involuta, L. truncatula, Paludina,
contecta, and other freshwater or land shells not in collection,
in exchange for Unio tuntidus, Splurriiim cor?ieuvt, Pisidin^n
amnicuni, Planorbis carinatns, Limncea avricularia, Limntea-
glabra, Ancybis jluviatilis, A. lacustris, Clausilia rugosa,
CI. ritgosa, var. dubia, CI. lajuinata. Helix virgata, H.
horterisis, H. nemoralis, H. putchetla, H. rufescens, and
others. — R. D. Laurie, 94 Woodchurch Lane, Birkenhead.

Offered, chiton, scabridus, and other shells. Wanted,.
British shells not in collection. Foreign correspondence in-
vited.— E. R. Sykes, 13 Doughty Street, London, W.C.

Duplicates. — H. nemoralis, hortensis, arbustorum , lapi-
cida. Cock, trideiis. Clans, laminata. Vertigo pygmcea, &c.
Desiderata, land, freshwater and marine shells, and fossils
from various formations. — H. E. Craven, Matlock Bridge.

Duplicates of //. aspersa, nemoralis, hortensis, Pisana
virgata, cnperata, &c., from County Dublin, offered ; othef
species collected if required. Limits exchanged. Correspon-
dence invited. — J. Roland Redding, 4 Vincent Terrace,
Glasneivin, Co. Dublin.

Wanted, fossils from various localities, particularly British
and foreign tertiaries. A large nuniber of good duplicates
offered in exchange. — Thomas W. Reader, 171 Hemingford.
Road. Barnsbury, London. N.

Offered, microscope slides— anatomical, botanical, insects,
diatoms, &c., also unmounted foraminiferous material ; alsc
" Fungi," by Cook, and a few other books. Wanted, slides of
rocks, or rock specimens (igneous and metamorphic only), or
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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

241

NEO-DARWINISM,

By a. G. TANSLEY.

II. — The Problem of Heredity.

'i^-^^l J^T^^^^ -^^ general pheno-
mena of heredity
are well known.
Not only do specific
characters reappear
with absolute accu-
racy in every gene-
ration, but those
slight " individual
differences," which
characterise the
various individual
members of any
species are also very
frequently trans-
mitted to the de-
scendants of the
members in which
they first appeared,
for more or fewer
generations, and with greater or less intensity. In
the human race the curved nose of the Bour-
bons, and the projecting chin of the Hapsburgs
are examples which are known to all ; and every-
one can multiply instances to any extent from his
own personal experience. How are we to account
for these wonderful facts? It is sometimes said
that they are accounted for by a law of persistence,
that "like produces like." But this is no real
solution at all, it is merely a restatement of the
problem. The first step in a real solution is to
recognise that in ordinary cases of reproduction, a
single cell is separated from the body of the parent,
that it subsequently divides and redivides,* and that
by the growth and differentiation of the products of

* The pcocese of fertilisation, which in the vast majority of
cases precedes segmentation, is here purposely left out of
account to avoid complicating the statement of the problem.
The statement is only literally true in cases of partheno-
genesis.

No. 323. — November 1891.

its division, it is developed into the body of the
offspring. These are ascertained facts, and form the
only secure foundation for further investigation.
Now come the questions, how is it posssible for a
single cell, often not more than fij, inch in diameter,
to contain all the complex potentialities of the body
of one of the higher animals or plants ? How does
it come to possess these potentialities? and lastly,
how is the adult organism developed from the cell
containing them? These are the real problems of
heredity, which we have to attempt to solve. In the
present state of science it is impossible to furnish
definite answers to these questions in terms of
ultimate physical and chemical forces. Nevertheless
we can arrive at some conceptions of the modus
operandi of hereditary transmission from a biological
point of view. We must premise that the first
question is the most difficult of all. We know that
the tiny cell, often invisible to the naked eye, actually
does contain these potentialities, but it is only in the
vaguest manner that we can conceive Jiozo they are
contained in its molecular structure. The second
question embodies the problem of the transmission of
hereditary tendencies from one generation to another ;
this we shall call shortly the " problem of transmis-
sion." The third question embodies the problem of
the development of the hereditary tendencies con-
tained in the germ- cell into the actual features of the
organism. This we may call the " problem of de-
velopment." These two problems are distinct, and
should not be confused, although they are intimately
connected. A complete theory of heredity must
furnish a solution of both.

We must now consider the chief attempts at solu-
tion which have from time to time been made by
various biologists. In chronological order they stand
thus : — •

I. Mr. Herbert Spencer's theory of "physio-
logical units " (" Principles of Biology," vol. i. 1863).

M

242

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

2. Mr. Darwin's " Provisional hypothesis of Pan-
genesis" ("Variation of Animals and Plants under
Domestication," vol. ii. 186S).

3. Mr. Francis Gallon's " stirp " and " gemmule "
theory, (" Proc. Roy. Soc," No. 136, 1872, and
" Journ. Anthrop. Inst,," vol. v. 1876).

4. Professor Hackel's " Perigenesis of a Plastidule"
(" Ueber de Wellenzeugung der Lebenstheilchen,"
1S76).

5. Professor Njigeli's "idioplasm" and "germ"
theory (" Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie der
Abstammungslehre," 1S84).

6. Professor Weismann's theory of the " Con-
tinuity of the Germ plasm " (1885).

This does not profess to be a complete list of
theories of heredity, but it contains the most repre-
sentative and important contributions to the subject.

Mr. Herbert Spencer's and Professor Hackel's
theories (which are practically identical) must however
be treated separately from the rest. These two
authors aim at arriving at general conceptions about
the nature of the qualities possessed by the bearers of
hereditary tendencies which enable the latter to build
up an organism like the parent. They do not give us
any particular and definite information on either the
process of transmission or ihe process of development :
and hence their hypotheses do not admit of the
analysis indicated above.

Mr. Spencer supposes the existence of certain
"physiological units," * of which the protoplasm of
a cell is composed. They are the ultimate biological
units, just as the molecule is the ultimate physical unit,
and the atom the ultimate chemical unit. They
possess "polarities " which cause them to build up an
organism of a definite shape, just as the polarities of
the molecules of a crystal cause the latter to build up
a crystal of a definite shape. They are made up of,
and are immensely more complex than, the molecules
of the chemical substances of which protoplasm is
composed, and "in each organism the physiological
units produced by this further compounding of highly
compound atoms [molecules] have a more or less
distinctive character, f We must conclude that in
each case, some slight difference of composition in
these units, leading to some slight difference in their
mutual play of forces, produces a difference in the
form which the aggregate of them assumes." J The
sperm-cells and egg-cells are simply "vehicles in
which are contained small groups of the physiological
units in a fit state for obeying their proclivity towards
the structural arrangement of the species they belong
to." § Any modification of the function or structure
of any part of an organism will cause, "some cor-

* Professor Michael Foster ("Text-Book of Physiology,"
f fth edition, Jntroduction, pp. 5, 6) has adopted this conception
in order to explain the facts of metabolism, and the diflerences
of different tissues. He differs from Mr. Spencer in this last
part of the hypothesis.

+ Cf. the "idioplasm" of Niigcli.

J " Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 183.

5 Ibid. p. 254.

responding modification " of " the structures and
polarities of its units." These modified polarities will
tend to re-establish equilibrium between the forces of
the aggregate and those of the unit, and hence
separated groups of units will tend to build up an
organism modified in a similar manner to the one from
which they were derived. Thus does Mr. Spencer
attempt to give us a conception of the manner in which
he imagines both ordinary inheritance and also the
inheritance of acquired modification, can take place.

Professor Hackel substitutes "plastidule" for
"physiological unit," and "vibrations" or " undu-
latory movements " for " polarities " ; but apart from
these changes of terminology, his hypothesis appears
to be substantially the same as that of Mr. Spencer,
which, however, he seems not to have read."'

Various criticisms can be obviously made. In the
first place a living organism is not a crystal, nor do its
ultimate living constituents — call them physiological
units or protoplasmic molecules or what you will —
act in an exactly similar way to the molecules of the
latter ; and although Mr. Spencer carefully avoids
stating that they do, this is what he practically
assumes in his explanation of normal heredity and
the repair of lost parts. But he also states that a
modification of structure or function causes modified
structure and polarities of the physiological units, and
that in consequence separated groups of the latter
build up a similarly modified organism. But if this is
sometimes the case, why is there no hereditary effect
in the case of the loss of those parts of organisms
which are normally repaired ? such as the leg of a
newt, or the tail of a lizard or of a tadpole. There is
surely a sufficient modification here to " impress some
corresponding modification on the structures and
polarities " of the physiological units. And on the
former assumption, why are lost parts not always
repaired ? Why does not a man grow a new leg
when he has lost one ? Where is the difference be-
tween the two sets of cases ? It has never (on Mr.
Spencer's theory) been pointed out. As a matter of
fact, the two explanations are mutually exclusive.
x\nd even supposing they were not, they both depend
upon the unjustifiable assumption of absolute solida-
rity between the parts of an organism. No doubt
the relations of the different parts of the body to each
other and to the whole are highly important, but it
is impossible to maintain that a slight modification of
any given part necessarily aftects permanently every
other part ; and this is what Mr. Spencer's assump-
tion practically amounts to. And we have never
been furnished with a clear and definite account of
the mechanism by which the effects of such modifica-
tions arc propagated through the body to distant
cells — cells, too, which are often fully developed and
have become perfectly quiescent years before. This

* I am not acquainted with Professor Hackel's hypothesis at
first hand.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

2AZ

is a difficulty which Professor Ray Lankester ex-
pressed so long ago as 1876, when contrasting Mr.
Spencer's theory with that of Pangenesis.* And
now we are certainly entitled to go further, and to
enquire why the effects of constantly performed
mutilations, which are not repaired, do not tend to
become inherited after many generations, as they
certainly ought to be on Mr. Spencer's theory.
Finally we ask — and ask in vain — for an explanation
of the fundamental facts of atavism, f
■ Mr. Darwin's " Provisional Hypothesis of Pan-
genesis " differs very fundamentally from the theory
we have been hitherto considering. It distinctly
recognises the necessity of grappling with the two
questions which we have seen to be the fundamental
problems of heredity — the problems of transmission
and of development — and it answers these questions
in a clear and unmistakable manner.

Mr. Darwin supposes certain organic particles
called gemimdes to be the specific bearers of here-
ditary tendencies. These are continually — at all
stages of development — being given off by every cell
in the body. The gemmules are continually circu-
lating throughout the body, and finally collect in the
reproductive cells. Each gemmule is a representative
of the cell from which it took its origin {at that
period of its life-history), and is capable, under proper
conditions, of developing into a similar cell. The
germ-cells, then, being simply collections of such
gemmules, possess the potentialities of new organisms
exactly similar to the old. J This is Mr. Darwin's
solution of the problem of transmission. The pro-
blem of development he solves as follows. The
gemmules representing any given stage of develop-
ment have a special affinity for the partially-developed
cells of the stage immediately preceding. They seek
out and unite with these, and are thus able to develop
in the right order their corresponding parts. This
extremely ingenious suggestion Mr. Darwin supports
by reference to the unerring accuracy with which
pollen of the right species alone develops pollen-
tubes when a number of different kinds are placed on
the stigma of a flower.

The phenomena of atavism, Mr. Darwin explains
by supposing that some gemmules lie dormant for

* "Advancement of Science," pp. 280-282.

t It is hardly fair_ to Mr. Spencer to charge him, as is so
often done, with being too vague and general in his theory
of heredity. In the first place, he is not in the least vague,
•and the impression that he is usually arises from failure to
thoroughly understand his meaning. That his theory is
"general," is true, as we have already insisted ; but it should
be remembered that he expressly says "a positive explanation
IS not to be expected in the present state of biology. We can
look for nothing beyond a simplification of the problem." It
is, however, quite open to us to criticise the theory on the
ground of its being inconsistent with known facts ; and further,
to demand now a fuller and more special explanation of the
phenomena of heredity, as the result of the many years of
research which have elapsed since Mr. Spencer's words were
written.

X "An organic being is a microcosm— a little universe, formed
of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute
and numerous as the stars in heaven" ("Variation under
Domestication, vol. ii, p. 399).

more or fewer generations, and suddenly, owing to
especially favourable conditions, are enabled to de-
velop into their corresponding structures.

It will be seen that this theory explains the pro-
blem of transmission mainly by the hypothesis of the
redevelopment of new gemmules from the cells of the
body into which the former gemmules were developecL
It explains the problem of development, by supposing
that there has been 2. preformation * of distinct ^t'rwj
of structure, and that by means of the presence of
these the germ-cell is able to produce the organism.

Mr. Darwin's theory explains with great readiness
most of the observed abnormal phenomena of
heredity, but it was to explain the supposed heredi-
tary effects of use and disuse that it was especially
constructed. This was indicated in the last paper
(p. 210), and it was there pointed out that Mr^
Darwin was right in his belief that a theory on the
lines of Pangenesis would have to be ultimately
adopted, if acquired characters are inherited. Its
explanation of the problem of transmission by the
assumption of the redevelopment of the gemmules
from the cells of the body alone enables it to explain
the hereditary transmission of the modifications ac-
quired by those cells. The other theories of heredity
which profess to allow of such transmission — such
as Mr. Spencer's, depending on assumed absolute
solidarity of the organism, or the late Professor
Niigeli's, depending on cyclical development of idio-
plasm, which we shall consider presently — are ojjea
to even more serious and fundamental objections than
is Pangenesis. We are, I think, in a position to say
that if acquired characters are transmitted, a theory
of heredity not essentially differing from Pangenesis
will have to be adopted, and the difficulties — very
great difficulties — attaching to it will have to be
explained away somehow.

The theory of Pangenesis has been often and
severely criticised ; it is not my ^purpose to give a
list of these criticisms here, but I shall consider three
which seem to me to be of special importance. First,
there is the argument about the inconceivable number
of gemmules that must exist in the fertilised egg-cell

* Harvey, following Aristotle, enunciated the theory' of
epigenesis, to explain the process of development of the fer-
tilised ovum into the adult organism. He believed that the
various structures of the adult were formed by the successive
differentiations of a relatively homogeneous rudiment (the
fertilised ovum). Malpighi contradicted this on the ground of
having directly observed the body of the chick in the egg
during the early days of incubation. He unjustifiably assumed
that it existed in the egg as a whole be/ore incubation. Later
on his views were taken up and extended by Bonnet and
Haller, and became widely accepted. Bonnet, however,
modified his doctrine in later life, and looked upon the egg as
being only an "original preformation " of the body, not neces-
sarily an actual miniature of the latter. C. F. Wolff, in 1759,
entirely exploded the theory of "evolution," or "preforma-
tion" as generally understood, and re-established "epige-
nesis ;" but Darwin in his theory of pangenesis undoubtedly
revived the conception of the preformation of distinct germs of
structure, though not, of course, the idea of a miniature
organism in the ovum, but rather a conception akin to Bonnet's
later views. It is in this modified sense that we use the word
"preformation" and contrast it with pure "epigenesis," to
which Professor Weismann has conspicuously returned.

M 2

244

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

of, for instance, a mammal. This is an old objection
to Pangenesis, and one to which Mr. Darwin replied
by pointing to the enormous number of molecules
which probably exist in a cubic millimetre of water.
But when we consider, first that a gemmule is very
much larger than even a very large molecule of a
complex organic substance, and secondly try to get
some conception of the enormous number of cells
which will have to be represented, the objection
appears of considerable force.

The second argument I propose to consider is that
furnished by Mr. Francis Galton's and Professor
Romanes' experiments on the transfusion of blood and
transplantation of tissues in rabbits and guinea-pigs.
Mr. Galton performed extensive experiments in trans-
fusing the blood of distinct varieties of rabbits. He
obtained no hereditary effect. Mr. Darwin would not
admit that these experiments negatived the doctrine
of Pangenesis. It was no essential part of his theory,
he argued, that the gemmules should use the circu-
lation as a means of transit. Obviously they could
not do so in many of the lower animals and in plants.
But in reply we may'argue, with Professor Weismann,
that it is difficult to see why the gemmules should fail
to take advantage of so favourable a means of transit,
and also how they could contrive to avoid it.
Professor Romanes has since repeated these experi-
ments with great care, and has also carried out very
complete skin-transplantation experiments on guinea-
pigs of distinct varieties, again with negative results.
Now in this case, on the hypothesis of Pangenesis, a
certain number of gemmules must have been present in
the transplanted strips of skin, and how they failed
to produce any effect is not at all clear.

Perhaps the most trenchant criticism of Pangenesis

is Professor Weismann's, and it is best given in his

own words. It is a criticism of Darwin's solution of

the problem of development by the hypothesis of

preformation. *' One and the same part of the body

must be represented in the germ or sperm-cell by

many groups of gemmules, each group corresponding

to a different stage of development ; for if each part

gives off gemmules, which ultimately produce that

part in the offspring, it is clear that special gemmules

must be given off for each stage in the development of

the part, in order to reproduce that identical stage. .

But the ontogeny of each part is in reality continuous,

and is not composed of distinct and separate stages.

We imagine these stages as existing in the continuous

course of ontogeny ; for here, as in all departments of

nature, we make artificial divisions in order to render

possible a general conception, and to gain fixed

points in the continuous changes of form which have,

in reality, occurred. Just as we distinguish a sequence

of species in the course of phylogeny although only a

gradual transition, not traversed by sharp lines of

demarcation, has taken place, so also we speak of the

stages of ontogeny, although we can never point out

where any stage ends and another begins. To

imagine that each single stage of a part is present in
the germ, as a distinct group of gemmules, seems to
me to be a childish idea, comparable to the belief that
the skull of the young St. Lawrence exists at Madrid,
while the adult skull is to be found in Rome. We
are necessarily driven to such a conception if we
assume that the transmission of acquired characters
takes place."*

These three lines of argument show the heavy
batteries which can be brought to bear against
Pangenesis from various sides. We can hardly
accept such a theory unless no other is possible.

Various attempts at modifying it have been made,
of which, perhaps, the most important is Mr. W. K.
Brooks'. t I shall not, however, discuss it here, but
refer the reader who is interested in the matter to
Professor Weismann's very complete criticism of it
(" Essays on Heredity" pp. 326-332).

{To be continued.)

ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS.
No. 6.

ALL the Rhizopods figured and described in my
previous articles, have belonged to the sub-
order Lobosa — having lobose, or finger-like pseudo-
podia, and containing many forms familiar to most
microscopists. I have now to describe some less
familiar Rhizopods, belonging to the sub-order
Filosa. In this sub-order, the sarcode is not so
obviously separable into a clear ectosarc and a more
granular endosarc, but apparently consists wholly of
the latter ; and probably on this account the pseudo-
podia, instead of being lobate or finger-like, are in
the form of exceedingly delicate, forked threads,
which become finer and finer as they branch, and
are usually more numerous than those of the lobose
Rhizopods. The sub-order contains seven genera,
five of which are represented in this district, and
about seventeen species, some of which are beautiful
objects, the tests being made up of round, or oval,
ovai--lapping plates, arranged in such a way as to
form definite patterns.

Famphagus muiabilis, perhaps the most interesting
species of the genus, I have not yet met with ; but
another species, F. hyalinus, is not uncommon in our
clear ponds and wells, though from its minuteness
and inconspicuous character, it may readily be over-
looked. On a side view it is sub-spherical, and the
lower end is produced into a short neck, with a cir-
cular mouth, through which the long, fine pseudo-
podia are protruded. As generally seen, it appears
as a roundish granular mass, greyish in colour,
occasionally with cloudy yellow patches in the
interior, and in specimens from some localities

* " Essays on Heredity," pp. 316-317.
t "Law of Heredity," 1883.

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP,

245

diatoms and other minute algse can be seen in various
stages of digestion. The pseudopodia are exces-
sively delicate, and require a nice adjustment both
of focus and of the light, to clearly distinguish them.
The artist has drawn the pseudopodia too dark.
In all cases, the sarcode entirely fills up the delicate,
membranous shell. The figures will show the general
arrangement of the pseudopodia, which are almost
constantly moving, though sluggishly, from side to
side, or lengthening and shortening in the same slow,
deliberate manner, A large nucleus is generally
visible. My specimens were procured in great num-
bers, from the ooze of a clear pond. Although there
was a constant though slow movement of the pseudo-
pods, I never noticed any of the animals to move from

Fig. 198.— Pamphagus.

Fig. 199. — Pamphagus.

\

Fig. 200.— Pamphagus.

Fig. 201.— Pamphagus. Fig. 202. — Pseudodifflugia gracilis.

the position in which they were first seen under the
microscope ; it is quite possible, however, that in
summer they may show a greater activity in this
respect. Like all other Rhizopods, they vary greatly
in size, but the majority of my specimens averaged
about the 3^5 of an inch.

The genus Pseudodifflugia differs from Pamphagus
only in the fact, that its chitinoid shell is incor-
porated or encrusted with sand-grains or dirt ; in
other words, it has the test of a Difflugia, but the
delicate, filose, pseudopods of Pamphagus, There is
only one species, P. gracilis, and in this the test is
more or less void, with the mouth at the narrow

pole ; it is of various shades of brown, approaching
to black. All my specimens were much more active
than those of Pamphagus, among which they were
numerous ; indeed, many of them would have been
quite overlooked, had it not been for the bobbing
about of the shell, as they were so very much like an
^SS^'^g^tion of flocculent dirt. I think it very pro-
bable that the form is much more common than
supposed, but that its inconspicuous character causes
it to be overlooked ; or if seen, to be confounded
with a minute Difflugia,

Fig. 198. ':imzX\. %^tQvca^T\. oi Pamphagtis gracilis.

Fig, 203. — Cyphoderia ampulla.

Fig. 204.— Cyphoderia, '

Fig. 205. — Cyphoderia devouring Conferva.

Figs, 199 and 200, Larger forms with extended
pseudopodia ; sarcode granular with yellow patches.

Fig. 201. Side view of another, showing neck, and
the extension of the pseudopodia through the mouth.

Fig, 202. Pseudodifflugia gracilis, with test of
brownish dirt.

Cyphoderia amptilla is another Rhizopod, not un-
common in this district. I have found it in fair
numbers in one clear pool, in several wells, and
amongst Sphagnum ; from the latter, the specimens
have been larger, and, I think, more active. The
test of Cyphoderia is very elegant from its graceful
curves, and its minute pitting in all its varieties. It

246

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

is generally of a straw-colour or pale yellow, oc-
casionally colourless and transparent, of chitinoid
membrane. It is a long oval, or retort-shaped shell,
with a cylindrical neck curving down to the mouth.
The fundus, or top of the shell is either evenly
rounded, or drawn out in the form of a nipple-like
prolongation. When the pseudopodia are extended,
and the animal is moving, the mouth is directed
downwards, and the body of the shell is directed
backwards and upwards, as in Fig. 205. Many of
the shells exhibit minutely hexagonal markings ar-
ranged in spiral rows ; others seem, even under high
magnification, entirely destitute of this ; while in
others again, the markings are so coarse as to appear
pitted. I have frequently dipped from my marine
aquarium, a Rhizopod in every point like the one
described, so I presume this species is both lacustrine
and marine. The sarcode does not ordinarily fill the
shell, though this is sometimes the case. There is a
large clear nucleus, generally visible and one or more
contracting vesicles. The pseudopodia are long and
delicate, often radiating from the mouth, for a dis-
tance equal or even exceeding the length of the shell,
in fine, thread-like branches. There is considerable
variation both in form and size ; average specimens
here are about 5^,3 of an inch in length, though I have
seen others as small as the 555 of an inch.

Fig. 203. Empty, colourless test, showing mark-
ings.

Fig. 204. Pale straw-coloured individual, with
sarcode encrusted. No pits visible.

Fig. 205. Large yellow specimen, from Sphagnum,
with no visible pitting, showing nucleus and con-
tracting vesicle. Devouring a filament of conferva.

J. E. Lord.

Rawtenstall.

THE SPARROW IN 1891.

PERHAPS many will say after reading this paper,
•' What is the use of bothering about the
sparrows? Kill them all!" Others will say "Very
disgraceful taking sixty clutches of their eggs ! " I say
that sixty clutches are but a very small portion of
those annually destroyed in this locality by those who
consider them a pest. I have now for the sixth
season paid considerable attention to their nidification
and added another sixty clutches to my collection.
They have not been collected, examined and prepared
withdut considerable trouble, for which I have been
duly rewarded by thfir revealing some facts which I
believe have not been previously recorded.

They began nesting about the usual time, but in
one locality they were quite ten days earlier than in
another three miles distant.

Occasionally these birds produce some very beauti-
ful clutches of eggs, but this season none of particular
merit came to hand, except a clutch of six and a

clutch of five. I give the measurement of the latter,
as I have never known it equalled — it being quite
the exception to meet with specimens fully an inch in
length — i*o by •65 — I 'O by *65— "98 by "62 — -98 by
•65 — '92 by '65. The clutch of six — the only genuine
clutch met with, which I have preserved — consists of
exceedingly fine eggs, with the "odd egg" very
pronounced. I must mention a clutch of five pyg-
mean eggs, two being infertile. I think they would
puzzle an old oological hand to recognize them.
The eggs of this season were as a whole much more
uniform in size than those of 1890. In that season
many of the clutches contained a small but perfect egg,
but this season this irregularity was quite exceptional.
The smaller end marking only cropped up in one
specimen, and that in the fourth clutch taken. I
thought by its appearing so early in the season that
more would be seen of it, but I have seen no further
trace of it in any of the specimens brought under
observation. There can be no doubt that the extreme
rarity of these specimens is owing to the eggs being
so large in proportion to the size of the birds.

Having examined such a large number of these
eggs without meeting with anything like a double
one, I began to think the sparrow to be quite exempt
from this phenomenon ; however I am able to say it
is not the case, and I now place on record — I believe
for the first time — that an egg has been found con-
taining two chicks. The egg in question was one of
a clutch of five, very ordinary-looking, and very
uneven in size, so much so that had I not known
them to be a genuine clutch, I should have placed
them on one side. This egg having somewhat the
appearance of a double one, by its being so much
broader than the others at the smaller end, made me
examine it carefully. This I did by dividing the
shell, and found an embryo in each end. These I
removed, and by a little manipulation I placed the
pieces of shell together, which show a very good
specimen of a double egg, which I believe to be
unique.

As this investigation was going on I occasionally
met with an egg in which the embryo was dead,
whilst the other eggs of the clutch contained healthy
chicks. I knew it to be impossible for eggs to get
chilled in such a warm nest as the sparrows generally
build, but I thought it quite possible that their sharp
claws might puncture the delicate shells. This I
found to be the case. Having no wish to give the
impression that I am shooting at these birds " with
a long bow," I have preserved some specimens to
corroborate the fact. It is curious that such a slight
injury should destroy the embryo in nearly any stage
of incubation, and also curious that these birds — con-
sidering the number of enemies they have — should
assist in destroying their own eggs, from what may
be called, hygienic neglect.

At the commencement of the season I expected it
would prove a worse one than any I have recorded.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

247

owing to tlie great infertility of the eggs, and the
shortness of the clutchfes, 10 per cent, only contain-
ing live eggs, against 20 per cent, in the previous
year. But as the season advanced, matters greatly
improved, bringing the season up to that of 1889,
when the average brood was three young birds. In
my report of last year I mentioned that very many
young birds are turned out of the nests either dead or
to die, and that so many more of these little outcasts
were seen towards the close of the season than in
the early part, is fair presumptive evidence that
the fertility of the eggs improved as the season
advanced.

The following figures show tiie slight variation in
the brood during the past six seasons : —

1886, average brood, 3'j young birds

1807 ,, ,, 3s >> ji

1888

18S9 „

1890

1S91

-1I
>> o j

)' 3

There can be no doubt that the stock of sparrows
at the present time is below the average, owing to
the severity of the late winter, and the objectionable
practice of placing a price upon their heads.

Joseph P. Nunn.

Royston.

THE LIZARD ROCKS AND THE
MARINER'S COMPASS.

THE favourite problem of Mr. Thomas Clark, of
Truro, and ]Mr. Howard Fox, F.G.S., of
Falmouth, on the magnetic rocks of the Lizard and
district, was ably ventilated at the recent annual
exhibition of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society.
Both these gentlemen have been laborious wcirkers on
the subject, and, as a consequence, their remarks carry
weight. But while on the one hand Mr. Clark
considers he has proved, by carefully conducted
experiments, the magnetic properties of some of the
Lizard Rocks, Mr. Fox, cautious scientist that he is,
is inclined to doubt that these rocks have any
appreciable effect on the mariner's compass at a
distance of two hundred yards. At the Polytechnic
meeting r^Ir. Clark demonstrated that the most highly
magnetic rocks were those in the neighbourhood of
Coverack and Black Head, The Manacles Rocks,
stretching out into the entrance to Falmouth Bay,
exerted very little influence on a magnet suspended
by a silk thread. Mr. Fox also proved to the
audience, by a series of skilful experiments on
specimens of the gneiss and porphyritic diorites
which compose the outer Lizard Rocks, that they
were only magnetic to a small degree. Both gentle-
men having conclusively demonstrated the more or
less magnetic influence of the rocks forming the coast-

line from the Lizard to the Manacles, the question
turned on the effects of these rocks on the mariner's
compass. Mr. Fox read some interesting extracts
from the philosophical transactions of the Royal
Society of 1890, which showed that Messrs. Riicker
and Thorpe, after five years' close study of the
question, seemed confident that the effect of highly
magnetic rocks was practically inappreciable at a
distance of two hundred yards. Mr. Fox said the
influence of the serpentine forming the Black Head
could be easily tested by sailing close to the point in
and out of Kennack Bay, and steering by marks on
shore independent of the compass. The magnetic
rocks exhibited by Mr. Clark, he contended, had
much less influence on a mariner's compass than on
a delicately suspended bar magnet, and he considered
that, though Mr. Clark had proved that many of the
rocks in the Lizard district were strongly magnetic,
until fresh evidence was forthcoming they must take
Riicker's and Thorpe's investigations to prove that
magnetic rocks had no appreciable effect on the
mariner's compass at a distance of two hundred yards.
The report of these two gentlemen on the magnetic
survey of the United Kingdom extended over two
hundred and seventy-five pages of the quarto volume,
and was now the standard authority. They found
that the most highly magnetic rock was the basalt in
the Island of Canna, in the Hebrides, and concerning
this they have written: "Although a compass will,
within a foot or two of the basaltic columns around
the summit of Compass Hill, in the Island of Canna,
in the Hebrides, so disturb the needle as to cause a
deflection of over 25°, this disturbing influence
diminishes very rapidly at a distance. At an hori-
zontal distance of eighty yards from the eastern side
of this hill the disturbance diminishes from 33° from
the top of the hill to i • 6° from its base." On
leaving Canna in 1884, they sailed as close as possible
to the north of the island, and frequently took
compass-bearings and poiats of Skye, but were
unable to detect the smallest defleciions of the needle.
In 1 888 they approached the island in a yacht from
the north, and when about three miles distant the
yacht was directed to a mark on Rum, by which its
course could be kept without reference to the
compass. They passed Compass Hill within two
hundred yards without observing any deflection of
the compass, and they were quite certain that if there
was any, it was less than i '5°.

In the discussion, Mr. Henderson, C.E., mentioned
that in Botallack mine, situated near Cape Cornwall,
it was a most difficult matter to secure a bearing,
owing to the magnetic rocks, and he had had to go
down to one hundred and forty-five fathoms before he
could get a bearing. The debate was the most
instructive one Cornwall has been favoured with on
this subject. At the close Mr. J. H. Teall, F.R.S.,
expressed a hope that Mr. Clark would continue his
investigations and give them greater quantitative

248

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

results. He would like to know the effect from equal
masses at given distances. He considered Mr. Clark's
method of determining the percentage of magnetic
power extremely ingenious, and further experiments
were highly desirable.

Fred. H. Davey.
Ponsanoolh, Perran-ar-worthal, Cornwall.

HUNTING FOR ZOOPHYTES.

DURING a hasty search for Hydroida and Poly-
(ii zoa in the tidal pools of Salcombe Harbour,
{vide Science-Gossip, 1890, p. 196), I think that no
two species afforded me greater pleasure in the sub-
sequent examination, from the fronds of algte, than
the specimens here figured of Bcania mimbilis and
Plumjilaria Catherina ; both were new to me, and

stems present a very beautiful appearance, a definite
circulation being visible in every part of the growth.
Granular particles are visible in a colourless fluid,
which flows up to the extremities of the pinnae and
back again to the main stem. Whether it is true
protoplasm which is revealed, or merely the particles
absorbed by the polyps into a water circulation, I
am not prepared to say ; perhaps some more advanced
biologist can offer a definite opinion on the point.
In either case the organism is a singularly attractive
one for the live-cell, and I have watched the circu-
lation under the microscope with sufficient interest to
forget my dinner, until recalled to the ebb of time by
one in authority in such matters.

Hundreds of the polyps, meanwhile, were dis-
porting themselves in full expansion, the eight
tentacles grabbing incessantly at particles in the
sea-water. Kick the table, and every polyp imme.

Fig. 206. — Plumularia Catheriiia.

Fig. 207. — Plumularia CatJurina. X 50.

both possessed characters which appeared to be
worthy of observation.

Plumularia Catherina is quite visible to the naked
eye. The fronds develop from creeping rhizomes,
some of the pinnate branchlets being upwards of an
inch in height, fragile in texture, and pale yellow in
colour. It is probably the most graceful of all the
Plumularios, as the pinnre wave in the flowing tide.
Examined beneath a low power, the transparent

diately contracted, to expand again, however, in less
than two minutes. The stem is jointed or ringed
between each unilateral cell. The intermediate small
buds on each stem appear to have a tiny orifice,
connected, perhaps, in some manner with the circu-
latory system referred to. The vesicles are somewhat
pear-shaped, with circular rim slightly on one side.
The habitat of this elegant zoophyte is on the stems
of Fuci and Laminaria, in pools of the low-tide zone.

HARJDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

249

In June and July, it is abundant at Salcombe and
other places on the South Devon coast.

Fig. 208. — Beania mirabilis. X 50.

The Beania mirabilis is, I suppose, one of the rarer
British marine Polyzoa ; or perhaps it is a species

the microscopic organism has been unduly enlarged.
As a matter of fact, the silvery white cells were barely
visible, and I had no idea of the find until the micro-
scope revealed the entanglement of finely-spiked cells,
connected by creeping threads, and twisting in and
out between the red fronds.

I have not been able to distinguish the slightest
signs of life in my specimen, nor could I find any
more in subsequent search through the same pools.
I am under the impression that the polyp never has
been seen. The frosted white of the stems is very
attractive, and the curious form of the spinous cells
renders the species unmistakable. Amongst the
recorded stations around our coasts for the Beania,
Scilly and Falmouth are named. Mr. W. P. Cocks
is the authority for the Falmouth district, and Mr.
Bean, I believe, discovered the zoophyte on a Cellu-
laria, at Scarborough.

In our snatches of holiday, it is impossible to
master the life-history of a tithe of what we may find ;
it would require steady work day by day for half a
lifetime, to investigate the marine fauna of such a
favourable spot as Salcombe estuary. But I am
induced to offer these notes to readers of SciENCE-
GossiP, not because they possess original merit in

Fig. 209. — Beania on Plocamhim coccineuvi.

which is occasionally over-looked in the wealth
of parasitic growth. Fig. 209 gives the frond of
Plocamium, on which the Beania attached itself in
the low-tide zone. In the endeavour to present a
picture of the natural growth, I think the real size of

this age of growing knowledge, but in the hope
that young students may be roused to the pursuance
of a delightful sea-side source of recreation and
learning.

C. Parkinson.

250

HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

THE ISLAND OF INCHKEITH.
By Chas. Wardingley.

TO anyone glancing casually at the south-eastern
portion of the map of Scotland, the Island of
Inchkeith in the Firth of Forth appears so small and
insignificant as scarcely to merit any lengthy or
serious consideration. Even to many of those who
have visited and spent some time in the Forth
district the island has presented no special feature of
interest or attraction further than that which is
possessed by, and is common to, the other small
islets which are dotted here and there in the
immediate vicinity. Nay, even by the majority of
those who have seen it, sailed past it or round it, and
by many who have had the privilege of landing
upon it, it would be curtly described and as promptly
dismissed as " a small island with a lighthouse upon
it." There are however exceptions, of which let us
give two. Dr. Johnson (in the company of his
biographer Boswell) visited it in 1773, and though
he remarks that there was "rather a profusion of
thistles," acknowledges very frankly that it had its
redeeming features. "I'd have this island," he
breaks forth; "I'd build a house, make a good
landing-place, have a garden, etc.,'' and further
avoM's that "a rich man of a hospitable turn would
have many visitors." Carlyle visiting it at a later
date, describes it as "prettily savage," "barley
trying to grow under difficulties," "no inhabitants
except seven cows and the lighthouse-keeper and
his family," and although he neglects to tell us of the
conditions of the kine, he is so far characteristic as to
volunteer the information that " the lighthouse-
keeper was by far the most life-wearyd-looking mortal
I ever saw."

Neither is the prevailing general indifference shared
by the commercial and militaiy naval authorities.
To the former it is a source of considerable danger
and loss, its position midway in the channel of the
Firth, and the presence of sunken rocks which
surround it on all sides, only too frequently causing
the disablement or wreck of some unlucky vessel,
which, driven by stress of weather or a gale from the
east, has been compelled to run for shelter into the
quieter waters of the estuary. Almost every year,

" When stormy March has come at last.
With winds and clouds and changing skies,"

some craft or other is driven upon and broken to
pieces by the rocks bordering this apparently insigni-
ficant island. Again, to those having charge of the
naval defences of the kingdom, Inchkeith, command-
ing as it does the entrance to an extensive stretch of
easily accessible coast-line, has been considered of
sucli paramount strategic importance as to justify it
in being acquired for defensive purposes, and with
this object in view it has recently passed into the
custody of the War Department. At the present

time it is being strongly fortified, and will, ere long,,
be fully equipped with all the most recent scientific
paraphernalia necessary to meet any emergency whicb
may arise in time of war.

But our object just now is not so much to dwell
upon its dangerous position or its strategic import-
ance, as to place before the land-dwelling, peace-
loving reader, a few facts connected with the island,
which may be calculated to arouse and partially to
satisfy his or her interest and curiosity.

In Anglo-Saxon times the island appears to have
been known as Caer Guidi, or Fort of the River,
and under this very appropriate name is mentioned
by Bede. In loio Malcolm II. conferred it upon
Robert Keith, one of the first Marshals of Scotland;
and founder of the Keith family, as a reward for
personal courage and political services, and in this
way the island acquired its present name. Since then
it has been held successively by the Crown, the Lords
ofGlammis, and theBuccleuch family, while from the
latter it has been obtained for the use of the nation.
In the turbulent days of Queen Mary it was fre-
quently made a subject of contention, and was in
consequence the scene of many a fierce combat. In.
1548, the year after the Battle of Pinkie, it was-
seized and fortified under the direction of the Lord
Protector Somerset, who;placed an English garrison
upon it. Two years later this garrison was assaulted
and expelled by the Queen Regent's French allies,
over three hundred of its defenders being killed or
wounded. It was re-garrisoned by the captors, who.
held it until the Treaty of Edinburgh, 1560. During
this last occupancy a larger and much stronger fort
or castle was built, doubtless with a view to future
contingencies, but it remained intact only a very
brief period, being destroyed by order of the Lords-
of Council soon after Mary's surrender in 1567. Its
ruins remained until 1803 when they were removed
to make way for the erection of the present light-
house.

In 1497 the island was made an asylum to which
all persons afflicted with an infectious distemper
called " grand-gore " or " gran-gore " were to repair,
" and there to remain till God provide for their
health."

Robert Lindesay writing about 1550, chronicles a.
curious experiment said to have been made some
fifty years earlier by James IV. His Majesty, moved
with a laudable spirit for original investigation,,
conceived the idea that it might be interesting and
possibly profitable to mankind, if he could discover the
primitive language of the human race. Accordingly
he caused to be taken to Inchkeith " ane dumb woman
and two bairns with hir," desiring by thus setting
them apart from the rest of their species, "hereby to
know what language they had when they cam to the
aige of perfyte speech." Details of the experiment
are unfortunately not given, but the veracious author
with a little commendable hesitation records that.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

251

report said " they spak guid Ebrew," a result not
more remarkable than if the verdict had been " guid
Lowland Scotch."

The geology of the island is extremely interesting
and is highly illustrative of that of the shores of Fife
as seen at Pettycur, about two and a half miles to the
north, of which probably the Inchkeith series is an
outlier. It affords a very fine opportunity for the
study of intrusive trap-rock and the accompanying
deposits of calciferous sandstone and carboniferous
shale. The first impression conveyed to the mind
when the general mass is viewed from a distance is
that it must have been the apex or plug of an extinct
volcano, but a closer and fuller examination of the
stratified rock soon dispels that idea. The trap
{whinstone) is a greenstone or dolerite, composed of
the minerals grey felspar and augite in very fine
grains, and this rock comprises fully five-sixths of the
entire island rising in the northern portion to a height
of one hundred and eighty feet above sea-level.
This trap would appear first to have fractured and
displaced the sandstones and shales, and later to have
protected them from the destructive influence of the
sea by acting as a natural breakwater. The sedimen-
.tary beds have undergone a considerable amount of
•change, due to their contact with the igneous rock.
Thus we find the shale converted into a hard, brittle
rock which breaks almost like slate, while the sand-
istones are variously affected, here presenting a quartz-
'like appearance, there a burnt limestone effect is
produced, and nowhere is it found where it has not
been in a greater or lesser degree altered from its
original texture, colour, and hardness. It is quite
noticeable too, that in the proximity of its junction
with the sedimentary rocks, the trap (or whinstone)
loses its crystalline appearance and becomes of a red
and earthy nature. In the southern part of the island
many of the amygdaloidal cavities are filled with
-crystals of carbonate of lime, chalcedony, and silica,
and these when water-worn have a very pretty
■effect, resembling some of the porphyries found in
Perthshire. The dip of the intrusive trap and the
stratified rock is to the north-east, the average being
about 45°.

Having regard to the vast amount of heat evolved
by the igneous rock when first poured forth, and the
resulting changes in the strata, it of course follows
that very few remains of past life reward the efforts
of the geologist. As may naturally be expected, this
extreme heat has all but obliterated them, and little
or nothing is to be met with except the almost
microscopical tests of the Ostracod crustacean
Leperditia subrecta which occur fairly abundantly
in the shale. Maclaren in his " Geology of Fife and
the Lothians," suggests that the carboniferous lime-
stone crops out in the bed of the Forth a little to the
east of Inchkeith, but the persistent absence of
limestone pebbles on the east shore tends somewhat
to throw doubt on this supposition. Still, when we

take into consideration the steep declivity of the
rocks at this part, the great depth of the water and the
direction of the currents, we have quite sufficient
grounds for not accepting the absence of carboni-
ferous limestone pebbles as conclusive evidence that
the carboniferous limestone formation is wanting.

In the north-east of the island there is to be seen
one of those curious memorials of prehistoric
times known to archasologists as Kjokken-Moddings
(Anglice, Kitchen Middens) or shell-mounds. These
are simply the refuse heaps upon which were thrown
the shells and bones of the various creatures which
were used as food by the primitive people who
formed them. The example at Inchkeith, first
brought into notice in 1872, may almost be considered
as a typical one, and is well seen in a section made
by the cutting of a military road leading to the
North Battery. The entire exposure has a depth of
a little over eight feet, consisting at the base of a
fairly compact and dark-coloured rubble. Upon this
is the mound made up of tens of thousands of cast-
away shells of Patella vulgata, Biicciimm undatum.
Purpura lapillus, and Littorina littorea, together
with a large number of bones, chiefly from the
porpoise {Delphimis phcccwnd), and seal {Phoca sp.).
Some of these bones have been split to enable the
operator the more readily to extract the marrow,
while many of them show traces of having been in
contact with fire. The mound is in its turn covered
by a loose rubble, varying in depth from twelve to
sixteen inches, and consisting of sand and decayed
vegetation. If this upper rubble were removed the
shell-heap would be found to be in the shape of an
irregular ring, with a diameter of from thirty to
thirty-five feet and with a maximum depth of
eighteen inches, " thinning " out as it gradually
approaches the margin. Within or very close to this
ring was reared the dwelling of the mound-makers,
a dwelling situated on high ground, to which the sea
although near was inaccessible. Unfortunately it is
impossible to give even an approximate dale to the
period when these rude inhabitants lived, and the
language they spoke, the customs they observed, and
the conditions under which they existed are all lost
to the pages of unwritten history. They were most
probably a migratory people, wandering from place
to place, living in exposed situations in summer and
seeking shelter on the approach of winter. No
weapons or utensils have yet been discovered at
Inchkeith, but from those obtained in Denmark,
where they have been very extensively found and
studied by Professors Steenstrup and Worsaae,
it has been inferred that they were made during
the early Stone Period, and that they were quite
probably of the same age as the earliest lake dwell-
ings. It must however be mentioned that Sir
John Lubbock records {" Pre-historic Times," 4th
edition, page 234) the finding of a large bronze
pin in the large shell-mound of Loch Spynie,

252

HARDWICKK S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

which consequently would not be more than 1,200
years old. This seems a solitary and perhaps not
altogether satisfactory "find," as by far the greater
proportion of Moddings have as yet yielded only
such weapons, etc., as would lead to the opinion that
their formers were scarcely more than acquainted
with the art of flint polishing, while their pottery was
of the very rudest kind. Of the metals and their
uses they were probably quite ignorant, employing
instead the flints and bones which came so readily to
their hands. From the absence of wood and stone
in the mounds, except where the latter has been
used as a hearth, we are led to believe that the
middeners dwelt in tents made of skins, only slightly
elevated from the ground. Though the transfer of
the edible portions of the mollusca upon which they
lived, from the shell to the stomach, would be ac-
complished without any very great regard for culinary
preparation, yet the presence of a dark-coloured
carbonaceous substance found diffused among the
debris, and the marks of burning left upon many of
the bones, point to the cooking of such larger fishes
and birds as came in their way.

They do not appear to have had any knowledge of
agriculture, not a single instance being known of any
variety of grain having been found in the mounds.
Even the shells and bones which they threw away
bear witness that this early people had not the means
of obtaining for themselves a very diversified meal.
All the species of shells, with one or two rare excep-
tions, found at Inchkeith are such as may be gathered
between high and low water mark, while the remains
of the porpoise and seal are readily accounted for by
assuming these creatures to have been caught in the
various shallows and pools left by the receding tide.
No human bones have yet been discovered in any of
the shell-mounds, so that we are quite unable to form
any definite opinion either as to the physique of this
ancient race or their methods of disposing of the
dead.

The Flora of Inchkeith is not very extensive, a
circumstance fully accounted for by the exposed
situation and the limited extent of the island, a strip
of land about half a mile long by a quarter broad not
affording very great scope for the growth of many
varieties. No account of Inchkeith could be con-
sidered anything like complete which did not contain
some reference to the zoology of the Forth in its
immediate neighbourhood. A few hours' energetic
dredging just off its rock-bound shores will yield
quite a bountiful array of Estuarine Fauna. Large
specimens of the beautiful sea-urchin, {Echina
sphara), numerous starfishes and crustaceans, many
varieties of bivalves, and quite a host of the lowly
but equally beautiful and interesting anemones,
sponges, corallines, and seaweeds ; these and many
others abound in the adjacent waters.

It may fairly be questioned whether there is any
spot in the kingdom of such limited extent, which is

more replete with interest and instruction, more
capable of yielding food for reflection and pleasure to-
the mind, more favourably situated for the study of
the past and present of the great world of which this
"green little isle" forms such an insignificant
portion. If, as Bacon has enunciated, study is to be
valued more as a discipline of humanity than as an
exercise of the intellect, here then is a fitting place
in which to put the aphorism into practice, and
while we look into the beautiful and harmonious
world of nature and life before and round us, let u&
dispel those lofty ideas of ourselves, and remember
that we, like the ground below us, are but small
fractions of this great and glorious universe. This
done, and we shall then be able to substitute greater
and more just views of the grandeur of creation and
the perfections of its infinite Author.

THE BARNACLE GOOSE.

" As barnacles turn Poland geese
In th' ibiands of the Orcades."

Hiidibras.

Caliban.

"We shall lose our time,
And all be turned to barnacles."

Tempest, Act IV. sc. i.

SOME years ago I was spending the Long Vaca-
tion at Eastbourne. It's an ill wind that blows
nobody any good, and so it proved in this case. On
the morning after the storm I noticed, while strolling

Fig. 2IO. — Bernicle Tree.

along the beach at an early hour, a large piece of
wood cast up on the shore. Wondering whether it
would prove to be a tree-trunk or only one of the
timbers of some ill-fated ship, we drew near and
examined it. To my great surprise and delight it
was the former and nearly covered with patches of
acorn shells (balamis) and barnacles {Lepas anatifera).
My delight may be imagined, as this was ^my first

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

253

acquaintance with these adult crustaceans in a state
of nature.

Barnacles — order Crustacea, specific name Cirri-
l^edia [Lat. cirrus, a curl ; pes, a foot] — begin life as
active larv^, resembling nauplius, and may be found
every autumn swimming along our coasts in great
numbers. This larva at its first moult develops a
lateral mantle-fold. At its fourth change the front
of its head becomes fixed by the flattening of one of
the joints of the antennre, and by the secretion
poured out by a gland which, though placed in the
body has its duct opening into the altered joint. At
the fifth stage the eyes and antennce vanish, the head
becomes fixed by a broad base of attachment, the
mantle-like fold of integument surrounds the body.

Gardens, London, a " Wonderful natural curiosity,
called the Goose Tree, Barnacle Tree, or Tree bear-
ing geese, taken up at sea on January 12th, 1807, and
more than twenty men could raise out of the water."
This "wonderful natural curiosity," was nothing
more nor less than a tree-trunk covered with barnacles.
The name of the individual under discussion, Lepas
attatifera, literally " goose-bearing," takes us back in
spirit to the times when the popular superstition
proclaimed that the branches of certain trees on fall-
ing into the sea, collected [sea-foam on themselves,
and therefrom hatched a sort of shell-fish called
barnacles, which in their turn evolved the bird going
by the name of the barnacle goose.

This superstition of the Middle Ages owes its

Fig. 211. — Bemicles transforming into Geese.
(After Gerard.)

and becomes calcified into a shell of many valves,
within which the hinder parts of the body are enclosed,
together with their six pairs of limbs. These limbs
remain free and capable of protrusion, while the
mouth with its mandibles lies at the bottom of the
mantle cavity. Both the sexes are combined in one
individual, and their fecundity is something marvellous.
But to proceed, on passing along the beach a few
hours later I noticed to my great amusement that the
log had been taken possession of by some fishermen,
who had rigged a tarpaulin over it, and were charging
one penny admission to view the "Wonderful Sea
Lioness." " What elastic imaginations some people
possess ! " was my comment. My companion replied
that he had seen a paragraph in " Notes and Queries "
to the effect that there was exhibited in Spring

Fig. 213. — Barnacle Goose.

origin no doubt to the play of words, the bar-
nacle being confounded with the barnacle goose. The
former is derived, according to some authorities,
from the Irish barneack ; according to others it is the
diminutive of the "Laiin perna, a shell -fish, pervaaila
being transformed into bernaada by a mere interchange
of labial explodents, in strict accordance with the
primary rules governing the permutation of sounds.

The name of the barnacle goose, on the other hand,
is derived from the Low Latin bernaca, through the
French bernaqne. We have, according to Ducange,
JSemaccE, aves ana's palustribus similes [Bernacae, birds
resembling the fowl in the marshes].

The story once placed on a sound footing, sceptics
were told to read their Bibles, and give special atten-
tion to Genesis i. 20 : " And God said. Let the

254

HARDWI CKE ' S S CJE NCE- GOSSIP.

•waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature
that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth
in the open firmament of heaven."

That the clergy fed on the barnacle goose during
Lent, we have conclusive evidence. The great divine
Giraldiis Cambrcnsis (or Gerald de Barri), who
flourished between A.D. 1 147-1222, does not attempt
to disprove the miraculous origin of the barnacle
goose, but he warns the Irish priests especially to
abstain from dining off it during Lent on the plea
that it was fish and not flesh, and describes an
analogous case to support his words ; " If a man
during Lent were to dine off a leg of Adam, who
was not born of flesh either, we should not consider
him innocent of having eaten what is flesh."

One of the earliest references to this obvious fable
is found in "The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John
^laundeville Kt., " written in 1356 and dedicated to
-Edward III., and is as follows : " And natheless
I tolde hem, of als gret a marvylle to him, that is
amonges us ; and that was of the Bernakes. For I
■tolde hem, that in our contree weren trees, that beren
a fruyt, that becomen briddes fleeynge ; and tho that
fellen in the water, lyven ; and thei that fallen on the
erthe, dyen anon : and the ben right gode to mannes
mete. And here of had thei gret marvaylle that some
of him trowed, it were an impossible thing to be."
.Sir John's geographical position at the time he related
this "marvaylle" is best defined in his own words :
" In pasynge be the Lond of Cathaye toward the
highe Ynde, and toward Bacharye, men passen to a
kyngdom that man clepen Caldilhe ; that is, a full
fair contree." It was in this country that .Sir John
^' astonished the natives."

Another writer, Baptisma Porta, states in his
"Natural Magic": "Late writers report that not
only in Scotland, but also in the river Thames by
London, there is a kind of shell-fish in a two-leaved
shall that hath a foot full of plaits and wrinkles . . .
They commonly stick to the keel of some old ships.
.... Some say they come of worms, some of the
boughs of trees which fall into the sea ; if any of them
be cast upon land, they die ; but they which are
swallowed still into the sea live and get out of their
shells and grow to be ducks or such like birds."

The next witness is John Gerarde, Master in
Chirurgerie, the author of a "Herbal, or General
History of Plants," (pubhshed in 1597), who gives us
therein a chapter headed, "Of the Goose-tree,
Barnacle-tree, or the tree bearing geese " and fully
discusses the subject in the following terms :

" There are founde in the north parts of Scotland,
and the islands adiacent, called Orchades, certaine
trees, whereon doe growe certaine shell-fishes, of a
white colour, tending to russet ; wherein are con-
teiiied little lining creatures ; which shels in time of
maturitie doe open and out of them grow those little
lining things ; which falling into the water doe become
foules, whom we call Barnakles, in the north of

England, Brant Geese, and in Lancashire Tree Geese ;

and the other that doe fall upon the land perish and
come to nothinge. Thus much be the writings of
others, and also from the mouth of people of those
parts, which may very well accord with truth.
But what our eyes have seen and our hands haue
touched, we shall describe. There is a small ilande
in Lancashire called the Pile ofFouldres, wherein are
founde the broken pieces of old bruised ships, some
whereof haue been cast thither be shipwreck, and
also the trunks and bodies with the branches of old
and rotten trees cast up there likewise, whereon is
founde a certain spume or froth, that in time
breedeth vnto certaine, shels, in shape like those
of the muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish
colour, wherein is conteined a thing in form like a
lace of silk, finely woven, as it were, together, of
a whitish colour, one end whereof is fastened vnto
the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oysters and
muskles are ; the other end is made fast vnto the
belly of a rude mass or lump, which in time cometh
to the shape and form of a bird ; when it is perfectly
formed the shel gapeth open, and the first thing that
appeareth is the aforesaide lace or string : next come
the legs of the bird hanging out. And as it groweth
greater, it openeth the shel by degrees, till at length
it is all come forth, and hanging only by the bill. In
a short space it cometh to fulle maturitie, and falleth
into the sea, where it gathereth feathers and groweth
to a foule, bigger than a mallard and lesser than a
goose ; hauing blacke legs and bill or beake, and
feathers blacke and white, spotted in such manner as
is our magge-pie, called in some places a pie-annet,
which the people of Lancashire call by no other name
then a Tree-Goose ; which place aforesaid, and all
those parts adioining do so much abound therewith
that one of the best is bought for threepence. For
the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to
repaire vnto me, and I shall satisfie them by the
testimonie of credible witnesses."

Michael Drayton, a minor poet of the EUzabethan
age, author of " Poly-Albion" (1613), a metrical and
topographical description of England in thirty
volumes, alludes to

" Th' anatomised fish and fowl from planchers sprung,"

in connection with the river Lee ; and to this line
a note is affixed in Southey's edition, to the effect that
such fowls were " Barnacles, a bird breeding on old
ships."

The myth, though attacked by ^neas Sylvius,
Albertus ]\Iagnus, and others, was defended by Count
Maier, who in 1629 wrote a book entitled " De volucri
arborea," with arguments physical, metaphysical, and
theological ; and even so late as 1678 we find the
testimony of Sir Robert Moray recorded in the
" Philosophical Transactions," to the effect that he
had seen "within the barnacle shell, as through a
concave or diminishing glass, the bill, eyes, head,

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

255

neck, breast, wings, tail, feet and feathers of the
barnacle goose."

So the myth lived on, and I am informed lives now
in the extreme west of Ireland, and also in the High-
lands of Scotland. Professor RoUeston, of Oxford, did
his share towards eradicating this superstition from
the vulgar mind by shedding the light of science upon
those darkened by ignorance. He prepared specimens
of LepadidK in such a way as to show to the best
advantage the manner in which the external
appearance of Anatifera upheld the theory which
derived hcniaca, a goose, from bcniacula, a shell.

Now a man who had been struck with the similarity
of names would only require some slight ocular proof
to be convinced of the truth of the hypothesis. The
wish being father of the thought, this evidence was
soon forthcoming. Away goes our friend and beholds
a mass of these barnacles fastened to the keel of a
ship or a piece of floating timber, and we all know
that " Distance lends enchantment to the view," so he
at once pronounces the foot of the crustacean to be
the neck of the bird, and the shell its head, and goes
home quite contented, and helps to spread the fable.
As for the body of the creature, history gives us no
account of it. Non est hie.

John Eyre.

VEGETABLE TERATOLOGY.

AS you seem to be working up the subject of
Vegetable Teratology, the following notes may
perhaps be of use to you.

In the Chronicle of the Agricultural Society of New
South Wales, Dr, Woolls records a number of cases,
chiefly dealing, however, with double flowers in the
Australian native flora. Some of the plants mentioned
were originally recorded by Baron Sir F. von ]M idler.
Double flowers occur in Ruhus rosif alius, Sm. ;
Efacris piirpiirascms, R. Br. ; E. iiiicropliylla, R.
Br. ; E. ii/ipressa, Latreille ; Sprengdia incar7iata,
Sm. ; Astroloina huinifusjim, R. Br. ; Raminaihis
lappaceus, Sm. ; Eriostemon olwvalis, A. Cunn. ;
Borojiia pinnata, Sm. ; Convolvulus erubescois, Sims ;
Wahlejibergia gracilis, A. D'C. With regard to this
latter species, naturally of a pretty blue colour, I saw
near Alpha, central Queensland, during October 1S87,
that for miles along the railway line the flowers were
abnormally white, not odd ones, but every example
out of countless thousands.

Fasciation of branches occurs in Goodenia hctero-
phylla, Sm.

I have myself seen fasciation in young leading
shoots of Casuarina (Australian oaks).

During a recent excursion with some members of
the Linnean Society of N.S.W., near Sydney, Mr.
J. J. Fletcher, ]NLA., found two fine examples of our
native flannel flower, Actinolus hdianthi, Labill

(Umbelliferce), with prolific heads ; in growth re-
sembling the old-fashioned hen and chickens daisy.

During April last, I had brought to me, by a
student of the college, a head of maize illustratin,:,'
heterogamy. Normally the male inflorescence is a
compound spike on upper part of plant, whilst the
female flowers are in simple spikes on the stem below.
In the example seen, numerous female flowers
(seeding) were produced on the male inflorescence.

Charles. T. Musson.
Hawkeslncry Agricultural College, Richmond, New

South IValcs.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

No provincial society is doing better or steadier
work than the Bristol Naturalists'. We have just
received vol. vi., part 3, of their "Proceedings,"
containing papers by Professor C. Lloyd Morgan,
C. Bucknall, Dr. Burder, Mr. C. Richardson, H. P.
Leonard, Dr. Edgeworth, H. W. Pearson, and
others.

A MOST useful "Key to the Genera and Species of
British Mosses" has just been issued by the Rev.
H. G. Jameson, and published by Messrs. W^est,.
Newman & Co., 54 Hatton Garden, at eighteen
pence.

The second annual report of the Missouri Botani-
cal Garden, founded by'Mr. Shaw, is to hand. The
institution is safe to do good work under the superin-
tendence of Professor W. Trelease. These volumes-
will be appreciated by botanists all over the world.
They are nicely got up, and the plates are admirably-
drawn and finished.

To botanists, there is no more interesting or
welcome brochure than the report of the Botanical
Exchange Club. The Report for last year is fully up
to its predecessors in this respect (Manchester, Jas.
Collins & Co., King St.).

It is humanly and scientifically interesting to
come into contact with what our friends and relatives
are doing fourteen thousand miles away. We have
before us the "Annual Report of the Stawell
School of Mines" &c., for 1S91, and a capital bit
of work it records. Science means business, not
hobbyism, at the Antipodes !

Le Diatomiste. The September part of this
series (No. 6) contains two exquisitely finished
plates. The capital paper by the editor, M.
Tempere, is continued, on " Recherche et Recolte
des Diatomees."

An old contributor to our columns, Mr. D. McAl-
pine, some years ago emigrated to Australia, where
he has done some good original work, particu-

250

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

larly in connection with the parasites of the copper-
lieaded snake. We have just received a copy of a
very important paper by him, contributed to the
Royal Society of Victoria, and reprinted from their
Transactions, on "Transverse Sections of Petioles
of Eucalyptus, as Aids in the Determination of
.Species,"

We are pleased to draw the attention of our
microscopical readers to Mr. Chas. H. Hesketh-
Walker's " Price List of Microscopical Specialities
and Materials" (12 Church St., Liverpool).

Nos. 5 and 6 of the Proceedings of the London
Amateur Scientific Society contain articles by Pro-
fessor Boulger, Professor Blake, and Messrs. J. D.
Hardy, A. M. Davies, A. H. Williams, and G. W.
Butler.

The Liverpool Geological Society is one of the
oldest of its kind in England. We have just received
the "Proceedings" of its thirty-two Sessions (edited
by Mr. H. C. Beasley). It contains papers (chiefly
on local geology) by Dr. Ricketts, Messrs. Beasley,
T. M. Reade, L J. Fitzpatrick, G. H. Morton, E.
Dickson, P. Holland, W. G. Clay, and others.

The '* Proceedings of the Geologists' Association"
for July and August, are as full of interesting and
practical papers as usual, which is saying all one can.

Mr. F. Pugh has brought out an "Air-ball
Cushion-tyre," for which he claimed the possibility
of storing in the tyre a certain amount of spring force
to come in action when required.

We confess to a weakness for book catalogues.
It is delightful to run over lists of good books one
cannot afford to buy. Pickering and Chatto's
monthly " Leaflet " is delightful, with its fitting notes
on rare or extraordinary old books. Messrs.
Dulau's " Catalogue of Nat. Hist. Books " is another
more than well worth perusing.

The last number of the " Essex Naturalist " is to
hand, crowded as usual with abundant natural history
materials relating to Essex. Among others is an
interesting discussion on t!ie Boulder Clay in that
county, led ofi" by W. H. Dalton.

" Stammering : its Nature and Treatment," by
Emil Behnke, is published in paper covers cheaply,
by T. Fisher Unwin. It is one of the best, briefest
and most thoughtful essays on this subject we have
read.

Dr. Riley's brochures on "Insect Life" are
regularly placed before the public. Every number
is marked by careful, and diligent work, good paper,
clear print, in short, the perfection almost of scientific
periodical literature.

Geologists interested in river valley gravels and
flint implements, should read Prof. Prestwich's paper
(read before the Geological Society) on " The age,
formation, and successive drift stages of the valley of
the Darent," with remarks on the paleolithic imple-
ments of the district, and on the origin of the chalk
escarpment.

The Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian
Society, have issued their Report for 1890-91. It
contains papers describing charming Cornish excur-
sions, the President's address, one on John Ralfs by
E. D. Marquand ; others on Coleoptera, Flints (by
J. B. Cornish), the Diptera of West Cornwall (by
C. W. Dale), etc.

One of Dr. Riley's most important papers (pub-
lished by the U.S. Department of Agriculture) is to
hand, entitled "Destructive Locusts: a popular
consideration of a few of the more injurious Locusts
(or grasshoppers) of the United States, together with
the best means of exterminating them."

ZOOLOGY.

The Black Scoter breeding in Britain. I
believe that it is generally stated by Ornithological
writers that the Black Scoter {Oidemia nigra) has not
been known to breed in the British Isles. It will be
a novel, and interesting fact,. therefore to record that
a brood of seven of this duck was found early in
September by Mr. Chas. Fowler on the Earnley
Marshes, about six or seven miles distant from
Chichester. The Rev. H. D. Gordon, the rector of
Harting, and author of that, to naturalists especially,
pleasurable book " The History of Harting," to whom
I communicat'^d this noteworthy discovery, has writ-
ten the following notes, which will it give additional
interest to the readers of Science-Gossip. The
southward breeding of the Black Scoter, which has
only been observed of late years, is a matter which
tends to the enrichment of our foreshores in their
fauna. The black negresses amongst the ducks (the
only part not black is the orange ridge of the upper
mandible, making it look like a coot's) have been
gradually coming south ; but it may be assumed that
this is the first record of the common or black
scoter nesting amongst us. In Yarrell's time the
"black duck "bred in high northern latitudes, and
generally arrived on Sussex shores in winter.
Curiously enough Saunders (p. 454), says " Without
special reference to the .Scoters, advantage may be
taken to remark upon the perceptible increase that
has taken place in the numbers of various species of
ducks, which breed in the British Islands since the
passing of the Wild Fowl Protection Act in 1876."
Saunders' admirable "Manual of British birds"
(Gurney and Jackson, 1889) may henceforth include —

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

257

-iind not, as "it now does, exclude — the Scoter from
the record of birds breeding more southward than
they did. — Joseph Anderson, Jun., Chichester.

Monstrosity ov Clausilia rugosa. — I lately
>found a specimen of this common snail having two
■mouths instead of one. Both were sinistral, and of
equal size, one forming the aperture of protrusion and
ithe other not communicating with the interior, but
vfully formed in every particular. I should be glad

Fig. 213. — Monstrosity of Clausilia rugosa.

to know if other collectors have noticed a similar
condition. I was impressed by the fact that the
•opening in use was colourless, whereas the unused
-one had the normal markings. The conclusion which
was irresistibly borne in upon my mind by this fact,
is that the snail having fastened himself in by his
patent door-apparatus, was unable to let himself out
^again, and was forced to break the wall and add a
back-door to his residence. I should be glad to hear
the opinions of other conchologists on this matter. —
H. Downcs.

Preserving and arranging Shells. — Allow
me as a collector of many years' standing to give the
results of my experience with regard to the safe pre-
servation of shells in collections. The great object
to be aimed at, and for which no necessary expense
should be grudged, is, as I have learned by sad
experience, to prevent the shell and the name ticket
from being separated. For this reason trays are very
Tinsafe for any shells in whose apertures the ticket
cannot be securely stuffed. I once lost the names of
the greater part of a series of species of IMitra through
the accidental fall of a drawer in which the specimens
were in cardboard trays ; but a much slighter cause
than this, a puff of wind, or the breath of the con-
chologist himself, is often sufficient to produce the
same result. Pill and chip boxes are so unsightly
that I fancy but few would care to use them. Glass-
capped boxes are undoubtedly the best, except for
very minute or very elongated shells, which are better
in tubes ; they are, however, very expensive. The
plan I have adopted as best combining efficiency
with economy is this. i. All shells which have no
opercula or teeth in the mouth, and which are large
enough to have the name securely placed in the
aperture, are loose. 2. All shells of which the
diameter does not exceed that of a fourteen-milli-
metre tube are, unless very flat, put in tubes. 3. All
shells too large for tubes but not large enough to
have their names in their mouths, or in which that is

prevented by an operculum or teeth, together with
such flat shells — as Trochomorpha or Helicina — as
would be unsightly in tubes, I place in glass-capped
boxes. When I speak of tubes I mean such as have
one end closed. Glass tubing, in rods to be cut into
short cylliders by the purchaser, is most unsafe, as
the wool-plug at one end or the other is constantly
liable to be pushed out. Moreover I should imagine
that but few would care to take the trouble of cutting
up the rods for the small saving effected. Tablets,
except for a museum, are an abomination. Only
lately a dealer was unable to send me a specimen of
the scarce and beautiful Helix regina because he had
injured it in taking it off the tablet on which it had
been fixed. Conchologists, who can safely preserve
their specimens in other ways, have not the excuse for
putting their shells on tablets, that entomologists have
for carding their beetles, etc. ; though even as to
insects the late Mr. Frederick Smith once told me
that he would not have undertaken to name the
British Museum collection of Hymenoptera if they
had been carded, so many characters are thereby
hidden. I may add that glass tubes effect a saving
in two ways, they are much cheaper in themselves,
and they occupy much less cabinet-room than glass-
capped boxes. — C. P. Gloyne.

Stranding of a Humpbacked Whale on the
Northumbrian Coast. — What is believed to have
been a specimen of the somewhat rare humpbacked
whale [Megaptera Iwops) was found on the North-
umbrian coast in the first fortnight of last month. It
■was first seen floating dead off Craster, but was let
alone by the fisherfolk at that place, as they were
otherwise occupied. It then drifted more southward,
and was fetched ashore by the people of Boulmer. I
visited the carcass at this latter place ; it had, however,
been skinned before my arrival, but from what
observations I was able to make, and the intelligence
I gleaned from the natives, I came to the conclusion
that it was the species named above. It measured
twenty-nine feet two inches in length. The throat
and chest were strongly plicated with broad square-cut
grooves running parallel to each other in the direction
of the long axis of the body. The special feature of
this whale is the great size, or rather length, of the
flippers, to which its scientific designation Megaptera
points. They are white, whereas the colour of the
rest of the body is dark grey. It differs from the
Rorqual in being more squat in form, i.e. greater in
girth, in proportion to its length. The blubber and
whalebone are comparatively worthless, and in fact
this species is not, I believe, commonly pursued by
whalers. If, as all the available evidence seems to
show, this was a humpback, it will, I think, be found
to be only about the fourth on record for the British
coast. One was killed on the coast near Newcastle
in 1839 ; one in the estuary of the Dee in 1863, and
one in the mouth of the Tay, in the winter of 1883-4.

258

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The skeleton of the second example is preserved in
the Liverpool Museum. — H. J. Torpey.

Veronica cham.-edrys. — The grub mentioned
by your correspondent Mr. Woodruffe Peacock as
causing a distortion of the upper leaves of this plant
is no doubt that of Cecidomyia Verotticce. See Frank's
Pflanzenkrankheiten, (Schemks' Ilandbuch der Bo-
tanik, vol. i. p. 547). The insect is a near relation
of the Hessian fly {Cecidotnya destructor) and of
the wheat midge [C. tritici), both of which are fully
described in Miss Ormerod's " Manual of Injurious
Insects."—/?. //. Scott.

MICROSCOPY.

On the Supposed Discovery of Pseudopodia
IN Diatoms. — We are much pleased to insert the fol-
lowing paper, by Mr. G. H. Bryan (an old contributor,
but youthful and promising scientist) from the " Inter-
national Journal of Microscopy, &c. " : — At the recent
meeting of the British Association in Cardiff, Mr. J.
G. Grenfell read a paper " On some species of Dia-
toms with Pseudopodia," in which he announced
that the pseudopodia of diatoms have at last been
observed. The species on which they were dis.
covered belong not to the motile, but to the fixed
forms, being of the genera Melosira and Cyclotella.
The discovery was made at an excursion of the Que-
kett Club to the Botanical Gardens, Regent's Park,
where Mr. Grenfell found the diatoms swarming all
over the surface of one of the ornamental pieces of
water, forming quite a little cloud of a nearly pure
gathering. At a subsequent visit he was unable to
obtain such pure gatherings, but the diatoms were
still present, and he collected a quantity of material
for future observations. The pseudopodia were seen
under a Jth object-glass, and nearly all belonged to a
small kind of Melosira, whose frustules were mostly
simply united in pairs, though they sometimes formed
short chains. The frustules of this diatom were very
soft and hardly at all siliceous, and they were de-
stroyed :by boiling in acid. Mr. Kitton thought the
diatoms were a variety of Melosira variaiis, but Mr.
Grove had never seen pseudopodia attached to M.
varians, and doubted their belonging to that species.
At the second visit, Cyclotella Kiitziii^ana was found
abundantly in the locality in question, with pseudo-
podia attached. Mr. Grenfell afterwards found dia-
toms with pseudopodia at Stanstead in Hertfordshire,
and at Westbury in \Yiltshire he found many of the
streams swarming with a delicate Melosira, which
was covered with pseudopodia. Probably, further
observations will shov/ that such diatoms are by no
means uncommon, and that they are widely dis-
tributed over the country. The pseudopodia are
quite invisible when the diatoms are immersed in
water, and the best way of seeing them is to dry the

diatoms by allowing the water containing them to
evaporate gently on the cover. The appendages .
will then be seen spreading out in all directions,
often thickly matted together. They may be stained
with an aqueous solution of gentian violet, with
methyline blue, or with fuchsine. A solution of
borax-carmine stains the bases only, while alcoholic
stains fail altogether. After staining, the diatoms
may be mounted in balsam. In no case were the
pseudopodia seen to move ; they appeared to be stiff
and non-contractile. They are arranged fairly sym-
metrically round the frustule, their number being,
usually from seventeen to twenty, though occasionally,
as ;in the genus Cyclotella, there are as many as
thirty-four pseudopodia, arranged with remarkable
regularity. The pseudopodia are usually perfectly
straight, but sometimes they are branched. Some-
times their surface is beaded or granular, and some-
times they are quite thick and even slightly siliceous-
at the base, but in all cases they were found to be
destroyed by heat. They always seem to spring from
the large markings on the frustule, but sometimes two
pseudopodia seemed able to fuse into one another.
The frustules were generally united in two's and
rarely in longer filaments. Mr. Grenfell supposed
that the pseudopodia have three uses : they serve as
protections, as floats to sustain the diatom, and for
the purpose of attaching it to other objects. The
author did not think that they bear any analogy to-
the processes of Chretoceros. Mr. Grove had sug-
gested that the pseudopodia were simply extensions
of a ^gelatinous investing layer, but Mr. Grenfell
doubts this. It might also be thought that the ap-
pearance was due to some rhizopod, such as a Vam-
brella, investing the diatom, but such cannot be the
case. Over two hundred frustules of Melosira, all fur-
nished with pseudopodia, were found in one dip of the
material, and in no case did Mr. Grenfell see any trace
of an investing animalcule. Moreover, such an animal-
cule would very rapidly kill and devour the diatom,
whereas Mr. Grenfell found that the diatoms re-
mained alive for a considerable time. The author
also pointed out that if the pseudopodia belonged to
an investing organism, it would be highly impro-
bable that they would be distributed symmetrically
round the frustule. The pseudopodia bear consider-
able resemblance to those of certain heliozoa, such
as Archerina Boltoni. This animalcule occurred ,in
abundance in the later gatherings which Mr. Grenfell
made at the Regent's Park ; and it was not improb-
able that the diatoms might occasionally be mistaken,
for rhizopods, especially where both were found in
the same gathering. The remarkable similarity
between the pseudopodia of Melosira and Cyclotella
and those of Archerina, when considered in con-
junction with the presence of cellulose in Arche-
rina, would seem to indicate a greater affinity
than that already known to ' exist between,
the more lowly forms of the animal and vege-

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

259

table kingdoms. From Mr. Grenfell's description,
it does not seem probable that the pseudopodia
•could ever be used as organs of locomotion, and their
■discovery does not therefore throw much light on the
much-debated question of the movement of diatoms.
It seems to me more probable that the so-called
" pseudopodia " are in reality identical with the
bristles attached to such filamentous diatoms as
Chsstoceros, Bacteriastrum, etc. These genera are
furnished with siliceous bristles distributed symmet-
rically round the frustules and often branched, and
the diagrams which Mr. Grenfell exhibited in illus-
tration of his paper bore a close resemblance to the
.figures of these "bristly" forms given in many books.
The principal difference seems to lie in the fact that
the supposed " pseudopodia" of Melosira and Cyclo-
tella were non-siliceous and were destroyed by boil-
tng in acid, whilst the bristles of the marine genera
mentioned above, are siliceous and indestructible by
heat and acids. But thi'S difference is not unnatural
when it is remembered that even the frustules of the
Melosirte were only very sparingly siliceous. It is
perfectly natural to expect that the greater amount
of silica present in the frustules of the marine forms,
should be accompanied by the presence of silica in
the processes attached to them. Whatever be the
ultimate conclusions arrived at with regard to the
nature of the supposed pseudopodia, ]Mr. Grenfell's
discovery is extremely interesting, and not the least
important feature consists in' the fact that the pro-
cesses, although invisible in water, were at once seen
when the diatoms were dried. IMicroscopists will do
•well to search the streams and ponds in various parts
of the country, and to carefully examine the various
species of Melosira and Cyclotella, with a view of
confimiing or disproving Mr. Grenfell's belief that
diatoms furnished with these processes are common
and generally distributed.

Cleaning Slides. — In answer to the enquiry by
H. Verinder at page 238, I write to say that I have
found that by placing the " spoiled microscope slides "
in a strong solution of caustic potash for a day or so
the varnish, balsam, etc., etc., can readily be removed
and rendered fit for use again. I use a common
•earthenware receptacle for the purpose, and before
attempting to wash off the varnish, etc., or to clean
the slides I transfer them to a basin containing hot
water, so as to get rid of the caustic potash, other-
wise the fingers might suffer. — W. AT. Young.

Cleaning Varnish. — I usually boil the slides in
^,n old saucepan in water containing a small lump of
common washing-soda. This removes the balsam
.and asphalt very readily. It is advisable not to put
too much soda, as otherwise the solution may act on
the glass. For the same reason care should be taken
that the slips remain always immersed ; if any of the
liquid should dry on them, the surface will become

permanently clouded over. When the slides have
boiled for about a quarter of an hour, wash in water
and wipe dry. — G. H. Biyan.

New Slides. — Mr. Fred. Knock's "mounts" are
always microscopical gems, to be awarded the best
and securest place in the cabinet. The last Mr.
Enock has sent out is an object of this character —
the head of the six-eyed spider [Dysdera erylJirhia).
The ring of six closely set eyes gleams like a ring of
noble opals. From Mr. A. Flatters, of Oldham, we
have received another consignment of his wonderfully
neat botanical slides of transverse and longitudinal
structures. These are accompanied by neatly drawn
sketches, pointing out the details, so that both slides
and sketches ingeniously combine to render the
botanical student as much service as possible in the
shortest time.

BOTANY.

Flora of Kent. — To K. E. Styan's notes on the
local flora of Kent I have collected a few additional
plants, which I think will be useful to his list. In the
woods about Otford and Shoreham, Ccphalanthcra
grandijlora grows rather abundant, with Lista-a ovata
and Orchis maculata ; in the beech woods near
Shoreham, Monoti-opa hypopithys grows plentiful ;
on the chalky pastures about the hills, Calamintha
acinos, and Calamintha clinopodium, sometimes
in company, but le3s frequent with Nepeta cataria and
Campamcla glomerata ; about streams, Scivphulat'ia
aqiiatica and Verbena ojficinalis ; in corn-fields
Galeopsis ladanum and Verbascum nigrum, with
Ballota nigra, which grows about hedge-banks, and
road sides ; on the hill. Ononis arvcnsis and Cardans
acanlis are very common. Two butterflies which I
saw veiy plentiful about there was the dark green
fritillary, and the marbled white. — He)iry E. Griset.

Floral Guide to Kent. — In answer to M. B.
Wigan (p. 238) M. II. Cowell's "Guide to East
Kent, etc.," was published at Faversham, and by
Pamplin at Wandsworth, 1839. But the only way
to obtain a copy now, is through the second-hand
booksellers. Let him try Dulau and Co., 37 Soho
Square, W. They had a copy in 1889, or Wheldon,
Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn. — Arthur Bennett.

An old Experiment in preserving quickly
Fading Flowers. — On the evening of June 21st
last, I received from a friend a freshly opened speci-
men of the night-bloorning Cereus {Cactus grandi-
florus) and it still remains open, a thing of beauty,
with its calyx, corolla, and stamens distinct from each
other. As this flower invariably opens in the evening
and fades by the following morning, few persons ever
get to see it when fully opened. The method of
preserving it simply consists in immersing the flower
in water and excluding the air. I took a propagat-

26o

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

ing-glass and a dish of rather larger diameter than
the glass, and having tied a small weight to the stem
or frond of the flower to keep it in position, I plunged
the flower, glass, and dish, into a large tub of water,
and while in the water placed the flower on the dish
and inverted the propagating-glass over it, carefully
excluding air bubbles, then lifted all out of the water
together. During all this time I have only changed
the water once. This was at the end of the second
week, when the dissolved yellow colouring-matter
obscured the \\&v;.—£dzuard Shackletoji, Whitzvorth.

Mr. Styan's Rose. — The rose referred to by
K. E. Styan, in Science-Gossip of this month,
(page 236), appears to be Rosa spmosissbna, the
Scotch or Burnet rose (syn. R. pimpmellifolia). It
differs materially from the commoner forms of R.
catiina, in being much more crowded with prickles,
the leaves ^having nine leaflets, and the remarkable
development of the hips. The sketch given by your
correspondent is correct as regards si-^e and shape,
but the position should be reversed, for by the curva-
ture of the petiole the hip does not grow erect, but
pendent with the persistent sepals downwards. I
have a fine garden specimen of this rose, which is
sold by the dealers under the name of Rosa rtigosa
alba, with white flowers, and a variety with purplish
red flowers distinguished as R. rtigosa Jttbra. — y. IV.
Fisher.

Extraordinary Growth of "Wild Rose
Hips." — The figure and description of an abnormal
wild rose hip in your last number agrees exactly
with the fruit of the Japanese rose : Rosa rugosa.
From the description of the flower and the fact that
the plant was growing in a garden, I strongly suspect
that the plant belonged to this species, and was not a
wild rose at all. If Mr. K. E. Styan will send me
his address, I will gladly forward him fruits and
leaves of R. rugosa for comparison ; it is fruiting very
freely this year. — R. Scott.

Rose-Hips. — Surely the Rose-hips mentioned by
your correspondent K. E. Styan in SciENCE-
GOSSIP for last month are nothing more than the
hips of Rosa rugosa, which is remarkable for the
clusters of large round hips which it bears. I have
not seen the fruit of this rose for some years, but as
far as I can remember the figure given with this letter
is exactly like them. The description of the flower,
" a very large, single, and either white or very pale
pink," correspondswith the blossoms of .ff. rugosa. The
foliage is not mentioned : that of the R. rugosa is very
different to that of our wild roses, the veins being
much indented below the surface of the leaf. The
bunches of hips when ripe are very beautiful objects ;
it is a pity this rose is not oftener cultivated than it
is.— G. .5-. S.

Notes on the Flora of Braunton Burrov^ts. —
I have found Matthiola sinuata growing in conjunction

with Statice, not on the Burrows themselves, but on a
piece of rocky coast north of the Burrows. Erodmm
maritinmm, as well as E. acutarium, grows in the
neighbourhood. — G. II. Bryan.

Holly Fern in Herefordshire. — It is over
twenty years since my mother found plants of the
holly shield-fern in a lane in Herefordshire. This-
autumn, being in the same neighbourhood, we re-
visited the locality, and again found one or two plants,,
which Professor Hillhouse and another botanicaf
friend affirm to be genuine lonchitis. They were
growing in a grassy and ferny bank by the side of a
country lane — a place quite out of character with the
usual habitats of the fern. I enclose a couple of
small fronds of the fern, which, I think, will be found
to possess all the characteristics of Aspidium lonchitis.
The plants appeared to be less plentiful than formerly..
— G. II. Bryan.

GEOLOGY.

The Geology of the Lake District.— The
undermentioned process may prove interesting tO'
some of your readers, and may be confidently recom-
mended in similar cases to all young students of
geology just before they are about to embark on an
"original theory." Being in the Lake District, in
that part where, according to the savants, what they
call the eruptive rocks of lower Silurian age, alias,
the green slates and porphyries of Borrowdale, are
exposed, I determined to form a really scientific
acquaintance with the ultimate principles, so to speak,,
of the stuff whereof all the highest mountains in
England are composed. Repairing to a fresh
wrought quarry I selected as clean, unaltered, and
decent-looking a piece of rock as I could see, and
with the aid of a workman's big sledger I smashed
the rock into as fine a powder as could well be undei-
the circumstances, and wrapping it in paper I put it
in my pocket. Happening to have with me a small
box of chemical reagents, etc., and purchasing a
bottle of strong hydrochloric acid from a local
apothecary, the process was begun. The particles,
of the rock were first reduced to a very fine powder
in an agate mortar and no great exertion was required
to effect this. In fact, it was rather surprising how
easily this was done, and how very different the
stuff appeared thereafter ; in the original bed it was
a rather dark bluish grey, but now it seemed almost
quite white. Some of the acid was poured upon the
powder, and after gently heating for some time, the
whole mess was evaporated to dryness ; a few drops
of acid poured on the residue and then some hot
water, the mixture stirred up, and filtered. The
quantity of solid matter left on the filter gave a rough
idea of the amount of silica in the original rock, in
this case say about sixty per cent. The filtrate con-
tained the bases, and in order to separate and detect

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

261

these a slight excess of ammonia was added, when a
very considerable precipitate of alumina and iron was
thrown down. It may be observed that the figures
mentioned here are those derived from a strict
quantitative analysis, and not merely guessed from
the rough investigation now described. Here then
we had separated those two very important con-
stituents of the rock, and the amount thereof, say
nearly fifteen per cent, of the former and nearly eight
per cent, of the latter, seemed as seen, as it were, for
the first time very astonishing, and even still more
so when, after boiling the washed precipitate in
strong solution of caustic potash, the iron was left in
a quantity much larger than what could have been
anticipated. The ammoniacal filtrate from these two
constituents contained the rest of the bases in the
rock. On adding thereto a solution of oxalate of
ammonium, lo and behold ! an immense and bulky
precipitate of lime was immediately produced. It
represented about six per cent, by weight, so that this
indeed was the "surprise of the day," and the feeling
culminated to the acme when, after detecting small
•quantities of magnesia and potass in the residuary
solution, the big authorities on the subject were con-
sulted. For it would appear, what is in truth a
highly interesting fact, that the various constituents
of this Borrowdale series differ very considerably as
Tegards the amount of lime contained therein
rrespectively. The rock just analysed contained six
yer cent, in the form of carbonate (the brisk efferves-
'Cence on adding the acid showed this), and it was a
■specimen of lava ash (pyroxene-porphyrite of the
savants) perhaps physically altered, although it
looked not so ; but the quartz-felsite, which seems
widely extended at intervals throughout the series,
contains only a little over two per cent., and the Skid-
daw slate and granite, which bounds the series to the
north and west, has only about one and a half per
cent. Wherefore this difference in the proportion of
lime ? The speculators of the school of Lyell aver
that these green slates were deposited in the sea
whence it derived its calcareous intermixture ; and
the mathematical surveyors of the district assume
•that a colossal dome of limestone originally extended
over the greater part or perhaps the whole of these
eruptive rocks, perhaps even to the highest summits
of the mountains. A comparison of the analytical
results aforesaid at once disposes of the former
hypothesis ; and the dip or angle whereon the latter
calculation is based would carry the stuff so very high
that my imagination is quite undisposed to follow it.
— P. Q. Keegan,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Common Snake. — I have in my possession
a very fine living female specimen of Tropidonotus
natrix, which I purchased in the spring. Some
months ago she cast her slough, and emerged in all the

splendour of a fine new coat. Lately she has become
very sluggish, and used to remain in the branches of
a small tree for days together. I could not account
for this sleepiness, for her eye had no appearance of
the cloudiness visible whenever they commence to
change their skins. However, the reason has now
become apparent, for within the last few days she has
presented me with ten eggs. In colour they are a
dirty white, and the outer covering, which closely
resembles the membrane lying immediately beneath
the shell of a bird's egg, is quite soft. The first two
were discovered on the loth ult., in different parts
of the cage, these I removed because a violet
ground -beetle, who also shares the case, had com-
menced to demolish one of them with evident relish,
and on the 12th I discovered five more. Three of
these last lay together, but the rest, which were laid
on the three following nights, were scattered about
over the cage. They were not connected in any way
with each other. I mention this fact because it
seems to be contrary to the observations of others,
notably, the Rev. J. G. Wood, who states that the
eggs of the grass-snake are deposited in chains,
each egg joined to its neighbour by a glutinous
substance; again, G. Christopher Davies in "The
Swan and her Crew," who describes them as con-
nected together by means of a sort of glue. I should
like to know whether it is common for grass-snakes
to deposit their eggs without the chain in question.
Perhaps some of your readers have met with similar
instances. I was very anxious to hatch these eggs,
and placed one of them, by way of experiment, in
the sun, covered with some dry leaves. However,
a small portion of the egg received the direct rays of
the sun, with the result that it was drawn up into a
boil, and all around the albumen was coagulated. —
A. E. Peake.

The Flora of a Cart-track. — When walking
on the Downs to-day between Seaford and East-
bourne, I noticed a cart-track leading from a
farm across the turf of the Downs to some
pits from which flints were probably obtained. I
had been noticing the characteristic flora of the
Downs here : Euphrasia officinalis, Phyteuma orbicu-
lare, Ca77tpanula glomerata, Gentiana aynarella, etc.,
and was much interested to find that along the
two ruts formed by the wheels of the cart, an entirely
different set of flowers grew, standing out in sharp
contrast to the compact and diminutive natives of the
Downs. Those in the ruts were : Cei-astium triviale,
Agrimonia etipatoria, Achillea milkfolium, Matricaria
chamo77iilla, EchiTiimi viclga/'e, Bartsia odo7itites,
Anagallis arveiisis, Polygo/mi7i avicitlare. All of
these are common weeds of waste or cultivated
ground, and their seeds had probably been brought
on to the downs in the mud adhering to the cart-
wheels.— Ri7ia Scott.

Albinism in Plants.— It may interest those of
your contributors who have been making notes of the
occurrence of albinism in plants to know that last
month, being at Largs, in Fifeshire, I saw a fine
white variety of Ce7itaii7-ea scabiosa. At one part of
the Bents there was a fine display of the beautiful
reddish-purple flowers of this handsome plant, and
amongst them there occurred one root with pure
white flowers. — J. Ca7phi7t.

Huge Puff-balls. — Having a very unusually large
Puff-ball (Lycope7-do7i. giga7tteu77t) lately come up in a
gap in a laurel hedge here, I think it might interest
the readers of Science-Gossip. It is still firm and
white, though slightly turning colour from the con-
tinued heavy rain ; it measures 36 inches in circum-

262

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

ference, and 34 starting from base round the top to
root. Again, there are two more near it, one ahnost
entirely eaten by slugs before coming up ; the ether,
at present young, measures only 16 inches by 16. I
noticed in Science-Gossip a number or two back
mention of bats flying in the sunshine. Before seeing
your paragraph I myself had noted the same thing,
and thought it uncommon ; first, in January or early
February, in spite of the cold, one was flitting in the
bright sunshine outside our fence at about half-past
ten A.M. Again, just as we were looking for the
swallows (late this year) I noted two flitting about
merrily for an hour or two before noon, and for the
first minute thought they must be the long looked-for
swallows come at last. The enclosed are, as you will
see, a curious form of monstrosity in an everlasting,
and some little shells, the latter taken from the
gizzard of some snipe shot about 27th January,
having just arrived at some ponds near here. Could
• you tell me if they are brackwater shells ? — R. Moxon,
Siin-cy.

An Ancient Earthquake. — Could any of your
readers give me any information on the following?
In Camden's " Britannia " of 1610 there is a map of
Herefordshire by Christopher Paxton, and near
Woolhope I find marked "Kynnaston chap —
which was dreuen doune by ye remoueng of ye
ground," and in the description of the county
Camden tells us: " Neere unto the place where
Lug and Wy meet togither eastward, a hill, which
they call Marcley Hill in the yeere of our redemption
1571 (as though it had wakened upon a sodaine out
of a deepe sleepe) roused itselfe up, and for the space
of three dales togither mooving and shewing itself
(as mighte and huge an heape as it was) with
waving noise in a fearful sort, and overturning all
things that stood in the way, advanced itselfe forward
to the wondrous astonishment of the beholders by
that kinde of earthquake, which as I deeme naturall
' philosophers call Brasmatias." Old Drayton iu his
" Polyolbion " refers to it also :

"B ut Marcely, grieu'd that lie (the neerest of the rest
And of the mountain kind), not bidden, was a guest
Unto this nuptiall teast, so hardly it doth take
As (meaning for the same his station to forsake),
Inraged and mad with griefe, himselfe in two did vine
The trees and hedges neere, before him up doth driue,
And dropping headlong doune, three dales together fall.
Which, bellowing as he went, the rockes did so appall.
That they him passage made who Coats and Chappcls crusht
So violentlie he into his valley rusht."

Selden, in his notes to the first edition, 1613, says,
referring to this : " Alluding to a prodigious division
of Marcely Hill in an earthquake of late times,
which most of all was in these parts of the island."
Can any of your readers inform me whether anything
is now to be seen at Marcely Hill of the effects of
this earthquake mentioned by Camden, Drayton and
Selden.- — Ilcnry yanus, Mcrthyr Tydfil.

Double Plum. — I enclose a sketch of a curious
double plum, which you may perhaps find of interest
to you. Also the two stones and the fruit-stalk.
It was given to me by a friend, and was grown
in his garden at Hounslow. The plum was of a
purple colour, with a pellucid greenish flesh, and
the two stones were close together, the spaces being
filled with '* gum." You will observe that they fit
into one another in some sort of a fashion. The
reverse side to that represented in the sketch was
similar, as far as I could see, in all respects, except
that the suture was not quite so deep. The sketch
is natural size. — T. Alfrai Dymcs.

Natural History of Slow-worms. — It may
be interesting to some of your readers to hear that
three days ago one of several slow-worms I have in my
possession presented me with a family, the number of
which I do not yet know. Is not this very late in the
year ? Professor Bell gives June or July as the usual
time for the bearing young. The most interesting fact
aliout it is that the young slow-worms have been not
only born, but bred in captivity, for I have had the
old ones in my possession for about eight months ;
the usual period of incubation is from six to eight
weeks,— /i^ D. Tilly.

Ringed Snake. — Since writing to you on
September 17th my snake (female specimen of
Tropidonotus natrix) has died, and as it was a very
fine one, and it is, I believe, rather unusual for a
snake to lay eggs in captivity, I thought it might
interest some of your readers to hear something of its
anatomy. Up to September 15th it had laid ten
eggs, all of which were separate. On the 27th it
seemed very unwell, and died in the afternoon. The
tenacity of life exhibited by the muscles was extra-
ordinary, for although the head and anterior extremity
of the body were stiff and dead, the rest twisted and
moved about for several hours whenever a stimulus
was applied. I must say I fail to understand why
the muscle-plasma should coagulate so slowly in the
case of a snake or slow-worm, and yet so quickly in
man and the higher animals. Entire length of snake,
two feet eleven inches, including the tail, six inches.
When the skin was stretched upon a board it measured
three feet two inches without the tail at all. It is a
curious fact that the membrane which in most other
animals is split and serves them as eyelids should
remain intact in a snake. The difference in habits
of the snake and slow-worm is not very great. Both
crawl along the ground and are subject to the same
inconveniences in regard to sight, such as dust, etc.,
and yet the slow-woim has a split membrane, and the
snake has not. Doubtless this fact serves very well
to distinguish the snakes from the lizards, when to-
all appearance they would seem to belong to one
class, but I should like to know what explanation is
offered to account for this peculiarity in structure.
It cannot be indicative of a very low form of life, for
in the class of Batrachians next below them in the
scale we find very well- developed eyelids. The
tongue of this snake measured 4J inches. Of this
2i inches was ensheathed and black, whilst the
remainder consisted of a bundle of muscular fibres.
Two thin rods of cartilage, presumably representing
the hyoid bone, ran, one on either side of this
muscular part, and they, together with the tongue,
were fastened to the trachea by a small muscle. The
left lung only was present, although the trachea
divided as usual into right and left bronchi. The
interior of the lung was sac-like, and resembled in
appearance the linked armour which was formerly
worn by knights in battle. The liver measured
eight inches. The ovaries, two in number, contained
in all 113 ova. Of these twelve were perfectly
developed, and resembled those already laid. One-
of these fully-developed ova had passed down the
oviduct to within a couple of inches of the cloaca,
and was larger than any of the others. The oviduct
around it was much inflamed and injected with blood,
and I suppose this was the cause of death. In the
tissue between the intestine and oviduct was a quantity
of white coagulated substance, which I imagine to be
the remains of an ovum which in some inexplicable
manner had escaped from its proper channel. There
was nothing peculiar in the other organs. I was
much surprised at the very slight development of the

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P.

263

lirain, which was certainly smaller than that of a
frog. — A. E. Pcake.

The White Flower Question. — In view of
, the undoubted importance of variation as an aid to
the study of the developmental history of plants, it is
gratifying to see so much attention being directed to
the subject. Henslow, in his "Origin of Floral
Structures " says : "To attempt any theoretical
•exposition of the evolutionary history of flowers
considerable caution is required, for the causes^ of
variation are generally so obsaiire, the chances of seeing
them in activity so small, and experimental methods
of verification well-nigh impossible, that speculations
on the subject cannot altogether escape the bounds
of hypothesis so as to become demonstrable facts."
Notwithstanding this, we find him at a later stage
declaring that "variation in the number of parts of
the floral whorls is largely due to an excess or a
deficiency of nutriment," and that "colours are a
result of nutrition:" He further says, "The paler
■tints, or even a total absence of colour may seemingly
occur as a variety of any plant ; it is often a concomi-
tant of habitual self-fertilisation in cases where the
variety of species is a degradation from some con-
spicuous and brightly-coloured insect-visited form.
"White-flowered individuals often appear as 'sports'
among seedlings, the immediate cause of which it
would be difficult to assign, beyond the general one
of the absence of those nutritive conditions which are
requisite for colours." Here, then, we have a theory
of colour, whether or not it will stand the test of
experiment is a different matter, but if temperature
nnd the character of the soil affect the forms of
flowers, why may they not also affect their colours?
Grant Allen glances at the subject in his " Origin of
the Colours of Flowers," but he has no better explana-
tion to offer of reversion in a red or a blue flower
to white than the tendency to reversion that exists in
all forms of plant-life, especially such as have been
recently evolved. Thus, writing of reversion in the
wild hyacinth, he says : "The frequent recurrence of
white varieties in our wild hyacinth proves that it is
■still far from having completely adapted itself to its
present level of development, as thoroughly well-
established and ancient species do not throw back so
easily or so often to less advanced ancestral forms,"
a view of reversion which accords with that expressed
by Darwin in his "Origin of Species" (6th edition,
p. 121). These statements suggest one or two
points to which, as it seems to us, attention may
profitably be directed, (i.) Is it the case that when
flowers change from one colour to another it is in an
unvarying order, from yellbw to white, from white to
red, and finally to blue? — reversions, of course, in
inverse order. (2.) If this is so, why is it that blue
flowers — the wild hyacinth, for instance — revert
directly to white instead of to red, the colour from
which they have more recently been evolved ? (3.) Is
it the case that lessened vegetative vigour tends to
check the development of colour, and if so, to what
extent does the check operate? If I am not greatly
mistaken, there are numbers who would warmly
welcome authoritative answers to these questions.
This season I have carefully noted the occurrence
of white varieties, and as the list may be of interest
to others, I append it for comparison. The district
embraced in my observations is the north-west
portion of the border county of Dumfriesshire, which
has a varying elevation of from 250 to 1600 feet.

Viola pahistris, Viola tricolor, Polygala vulgaj-is,
Epilohium montana. Scabious succisa, Campanula
rotundifolia, Erica cinerea, Calluna vulgaris, Gcntiana
campesti'isy Veronica scutellata, Euphrasia officinalis,

Pcdicularis sylvatica, Ajuga rcptans. Prunella vulgaris,
Symphytum officinale. Orchis mascula, Hyacinthus
nonscriptus. — yohn Corrie,

The White Flower Question. — In connection
with the correspondence on this subject, it maybe
interesting to mention that a few weeks ago at
Malvern Wells, I found a quantity of Bartsia
odontites growing by the roadside leading up from
the Midland station. A large proportion of the
plants had pure white flowers, while of the remainder
a great many had flowers of a pale pink colour, a
great deal lighter than usual. This was not a case
of an isolated albino, as the white flowers predomi-
nated. Near Cambridge on the Hills road, Geranium
pyrenaicuin grows abundantly in one spot, but the
flowers are invariably white. I have never seen lilac
specimens in Cambridgeshire The same remark
applies to the comfrey, Symphytum officinale, which is
always white-flowered about Cambridge. I have
found albinos of Ononis arvensis (rest-harrow) year
after year in the same spot by the road leading from
Cambridge to Newton. Also solitary white speci-
mens of Cichorium intybus, and Centaurea scabiosa.
Two years ago I found white Gentiana campestris at
Fort Augustus, while at some height above the Lake
of Como, in 1878, I found Gcntiana acaulis with
some flowers of a pure white and others of a pale
"Cambridge blue," forming a striking contrast to
the usual dark " Oxford blue" hue of tlie flowers. —
G. H. Bryan.

The White Flower Question.— Now that Mr,
P. Q. Keegan has evinced an interest in this subject,
I begin to hope for some workable information. To
his queries in last month's number, I subjoin the
following :— The heather is in full bloom in this
neighbourhood, from the early part of August to the
close of September, white varieties included. _ The
atmosphere of this county, undoubtedly contains a
deal of moisture ; and it is certainly as indisputable
that with certain winds, the atmosphere is also highly
charged with saline substances. Perhaps it will be
only fair to add, while this question is being discussed,
that the flowers of the white heather which I have
pressed this summer, have turned to a delicate pink in
the drying process. The colour, I noticed, asserted its
presence in about forty-eight hours after the plants
were placed in the press. Of course it is not near so
pronounced as the normal tints of the heather. —
Fred. H. Davey, Ponsanooth, Porati-ar-tuorthal.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers.— As we now
publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists.— We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others.— We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note.— There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

264

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IF.

To OUR Recent Exchangers.— We are willing to be helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

H. E. G.— Get Bennett's "Manual of Cryptogamia," pub-
lished by Longmans at, we believe, 6s.

C. H. Betts. — We are much obliged by your complimentary
query, but we beg to say that, as a magazine or oiherwise,
Science-Gossip is perfectly free, and sails under no auspices
except those of publisher, editor, and generous and loyal con-
tributors. It has been issued thus for twenty-six years, and
perhaps no other popular scientific journal has such a world-
wide or large circulation. Our views are perfectly independent,
although we endeavour to make them comprehensive and
.sympathetic. ^ ,, , ,

C. T. MussoN (Hawkesbury, N.S. Wales).— ISIany thanks
for specimens of "green roses." They are not uncommon,
and on this side of the world we have known florists who made
money by cultivating " green rose " trees. Of course, it is a
question of return of the petals to the foliar or green condition.
The real inquiry ought to be as to whether this greenness is due
to the presence of chlorophyll, or otherwise.

EXCHANGES.

ROTIFERA. — Can anyone send me specimens of Callidina
^tgra, C. syvi/'iaiica, or C. Liebhardti i Correspondence
invited.— David Bryce, 37 Brooke Road, Stoke Newington
Common, London, N. ,,.,.,,■■

Wanted, a good selection of mounted histological slides;
also minerals and geological inounted slides. A reasonable
price given.— W. F. Crews, c.o. F. F. and Co., Rangoon,
Burmah. . • 1 ,

Wanted, all kinds of good unmounted micro material and
microscopical books, in exchange for choicest microscopic
slides of every variety. Foreign correspondence solicited.—
R. Suter, 5 Highweek Road, Tottenham, Middlesex, England.

Sphcrriniii lactistre. Helix fusca, Pisana pzdchclla, Claiisilia
laminata, Balia pen-ersa, and many others. Wanted, species
and varieties of many land and freshwater shells.— H. Downes,
University Union, Edinburgh.

L. C, 8th ed. :— 109, 115, 193, 272, 315. 396, 493, 574, 579,
611, 648, 691, 966, 976, 982, iioi, 1134, 1154. 1200, r422, I439<^.
1459, 1529. 1538, 1753. 1759. &c. Lists invited.— W. Biddis-
combe, 60 St. James's Place, Plumstead, S.L.

Land molluscs from the Bernese Oberland. in exchange for
forei-^n helices from any country. Also Helix elegans from
the o'nly British locality.— Rev. J. W. Horsley, Woolwich.

Wanted for the museum, typical collections of minerals,
sea-weeds, corallines, or lichens: must be correctly named.
Will give in return typical collections of beetles, butterflies and
moths, or cases.— S. L. Mosley, Beaumont Park Museum,
Huddersfield.

Offered, L. C, 8th ed.:— 3*, 41, loi, 105, 107^ 116, 121,
141, 1761^, 193, 221, 229, 240, 291, 335, 336. 338, 341, 483, 536,
538, 562, 576, 611, 635, 698, 854, 859, 863, 873, 901, 9i8fl, 928/^,
944, 957. 9^9. 97°> 973. 1189. ii94. "96, 1212, 1224, 1232, 1344,

1421, 1483, 1'^is^ 1563. 1593. 1629, 1630. 1688 1743. 1753. 1772,

1794, I'^'S. '845- '^'^^'^ °^ desiderata on application to — J. A.
Whe'ldon, 9 Chelsea Road, Walton Vale, Liverpool.

Offered, Cassell's " Familiar Wild Flowers," forty parts,
and "Fishing Gazette" for 1889-91. Will accept natural
history specimens or books in exchange, or other offers.—
H. Fisher, Stodman Street, Newark, Notts.

Wanted, entomological cabinet, store-boxes, &c. Can offer
in exchange about fifty species of British birds' eggs, mostly in
clutches, and a few with nests ; also fossils from secondary and
tertiary rocks.— W. D. Carr, Lincoln _

What offers for about fifty kinds of animal hairs, fish scales,
exotic and British lepidoptera, and dragonflies' wings, &c.
Also about forty British birds' eggs (unnamed). Wanted par-
ticularly, land and freshwater shells, and the following books :
Rye's "Beetles," Rimmer's "Land and Freshwater Shells,"
Taylor's "Aquarium," &c. ; condition immaterial so long as no
pages missing.— H. Durrant, 4 Boulton Road, West Bromwich.

Wanted, botanical slides, good sections. A packet of
unmounted material from New Zealand, of which I have six
different, will be given in exchange for each slide.— W. A.
Gain, Tuxford, Newark. ,„ , . , ,

Wanted, a good copy of Beale's "How to Work with the
I^Iicroscope," in exchange for a collection of 258 Swiss plants,
including some of the rarest: Ancinone Halleri, Raniuiculiis
elacialis, Dianthns snperbus, Potentilla frigida, Leonto-
podiMin alpinuvi, Artemisia mntellina, Hieracium aurantia-
cnm Gcntiana glncialis, named and mounted. — Bernard
Stra'cey, 45 Fountain Hill Road, Edinburgh.

For exchange, bred specimens of ruby tiger {A. fuliginosa),
six -wols. Science-Gossip, including two with coloured plates,
and McAlpine's " Botanical Atlas," unbound. Wanted, books,
tricycle, anti a few good diatom and botanical mounts. — J. C.
Blackshaw, 179 Penn Road, Wolverhampton.

Well-mounted palates of British land and freshwater
shells in exchange for good foreign land or freshwater shells.
— WilKam Moss, 13 Milton Place, Ashton-under-Lyne.

Duplicates. — T. haliotidea, H. Cantiana, var. albida, H.
virgaia, vars. alba and albicans. H. Cartusiana, H. caperata^
var. major, P. secale, and C. laminata, var. albinos. Deside-
rata, good local forms of H. nemoralis, H. horte/isis, H.
arbustornm, H. lirgata, and H. ericetorwn, or offers. —
C. H. Morris, Lewe-, Sussex.

Offered, a large selection of mosses, juncace, carices,
Jiepaticea, in exchange for lichens (named), or a copy of Hob-
kirk's " British Mosses " would be acceptable. — Albert Downie,
40 Dallfield Walk, Dundee.

Wanted, some one to cut and polish a few geological
specimens. Will give Alston Moor minerals for doing it. —
William Hetheringion, Nenthead, Alston Moor, Cumberland.

Good encrinite heads and palatal teeth oi Psephodnsniagniis
from Carboniferous limestone. Vertigo pygmcea, and Zonite
excavatiis, var. vitrina. Wanted, foreign land shells.^
Cairns, Queen Street, Hurst, Ashton-under-Lyne.

Science-Gossip for 18&9, "Brit. Assoc. Handbook of Man-
chester," and "The Point and Line." Wanted, copy of
"L. C." 8th ed., &C.-G. H. B., Thornlea, Cambridge.

Duplicates. — //. nemoralis, Itortensis, arbiistorutn, erice-
tnrum, Cantiana, caperata, Coch. tridens, Clatis. laminata.
Vertigo pygtnii-a, &c., fos-^ils from carboniferous limestone
and Voredale shale, Derbyshire minerals. Desiderata, land,
freshwater and marine shells, and fossils from various forma-
tions.— H. E. Craven, Matlock Bridge.

Astronomical telescope, 2i-inch object-glass, on solid brass
table stand with steadying rod, having rack and pinion adjust-
meiit, very highly finished. Want gond monocular or binocular
microscope. State makers name. — Dr. Taylor, 26 Marchmont
Street, London, W.C.

Duplicates. — Fine Sphceriiim ovale and 5". rivicola, Unio-
picfornm, U. tnmidus, Paludina vivipara, Lim7iira stagnaiis,
Anodonia cygnea. Helix arbiistornm, Planorbis Cornells. Pupa
marginata, &c. Desiderata, other British land and freshwater
shells. — R. Dutton, Piccadilly, York.

Duplicate clutches of goldfinch, sociable plover, Montague
harrier, vvater-rail, ring ousel, goldcrest, crested tit, coil
bunting, eider, duck, and eggs of capercaillie, widgeon, scaup,
twite, hen harrier, merlin, &c. Desiderata, many kinds com-
moner eggs. — Jas. Ellison, Steeton, Keighley.

Wanted, varieties of British land and freshwater shells-
Can offer very fine Pupa secale, B. obscurus, vars. strigatt^
and bizona, Balia pei-versa, and many others. A. Alletsee,
I South Villas, Kensington Road, Redland, Bristol.

Duplicates. — Emarcinula rosea, Trochus Montacnti,
exasperatiis, striatus, Rissoa reticulata, calathus, incon-^
spiciia, canccllata, lactea, Cccciim glabruiii. Helix rezielata,
Cyclostrema nitens, &c. Wanted, British marine and foreign
shells not in collection. — Brockton Tomlin, The Green,.
Llandaff.

Fossil shells from the B»rton clay, Purbeck limestone, and
Kimmeridge clay, offered in exchange for fossils, minerals, and
rocks of other formations. Address — Mr. A. E. Salter,
8 Venetia Road, Finsbury Park, N.

Duplicate clutches of little bittern, curlew, shieldrake.
b.-h. gull, swallow, cuckoo, marsh-tit, Manx shearwater, reed
warbler, magpie, jackdaw, whitethroat, lesser redpole, tawney
owl, chaffinch, eggs of hoopoe, fester whitethroat, guillemot,,
razorbill, widgeon, &c. Desiderata, clutches, side-blown and
with data.— F. W. Paple, 62 Waterloo Street, Bolton.

H. lamellata, H. fusca, P. ringens. An. lacustris, and
numerous other species offered for .-my shells, British or foreign^
not in collection. Also fossils for others, or offers. Foreign
correspondence specially desired.— Rev. John Hawell, Ingleby
Greenhow Vicarage, Middlesbrough.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.
"British Edible Fungi," by Dr. M. C. Cooke (London:
Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.).— " Physical Geology and
Geography of Ireland," by Professor Ed. Hull (London i
Stamford). — " Le Diatomiste," No. 6 (September) (London:
Bailliere, Cox & Co.). — "The Essex Naturalist." — " Americatv
Microscopical Journal." — "American Naturalist."—" Canadian.
Entomologist." — "The Naturalist." — "The Botanical Gazette."
— " The Gentleman's Magazine."— "The Midland Naturalist.""

"Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes." — "The Microscope." —

"Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South.
Wales," &c., &c.

Communications rhceivkd up to the i2Th ult. from :■
T C.-T. A. D.— D. H. S. S.-F. H. P. C.-C. J.— A. E. T.
— T H — T. A. L.-J. E. L.— R. S.-H. E. G.— H. D.— H.
F — C T. M.— R. S.— F. P.— D. B.— J. A. jun.— W. H.— W.
H N — I T. O. C— J. A. W.— E. A. W. P.— W. B.— R. S.
M — E M J.— E. S.— I. H. C— A. E. P.— A. D.— A. B.—
g' S. S.— W. M.-C. H. M.— E. B.— I. W. B.— G. P. G.—
T C — W. D. C— W. A. G.-E. S.— I. K.-H. J. T.— C. H.
B — D. N. S.-J. H. A. H.— D. P. Q. K.-H. F.— R. C —
E. D. F.-C. T. M.-G. E. T.— A. E. S.— J. S.-T. E. A.—
B T— J. W. F.— J. H.— R. B.— A. A.— J. E.— J. H. D.—
g'. L. E.— J. W. P.— R. D.— Dr. T.-H. E. C.-G. H. B.—
T. M.— W. T.— &c., &c.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

265

NEO-DARWINISM,

By a. G. TANSLEY.

\Conii)tHcd JrojH p. 244.]

R. FRANCIS GAL-
TON'S theory of
heredity has been
variously described
; as " a modification
of Darwin's " * and
as "substantially
the same as that
of Professor Weis-
mann."t We shall
endeavour to show,
however, that

neither of these
representations is
correct. Mr. Gal-
ton's theory, in-
deed, stands in an
important manner
intermediate be-
tween "Pangene-
sis " and " the con-
tinuity of the germ-plasm," but it is a perfectly distinct
theory. In 1872 the main ideas were promulgated,
but a fuller account was published in 1S76.

Mr. Galton sets out with a conception of the organism
as composed of microscopic "organic units." He
does not distinctly state whether these correspond to
cells, but with our present knowledge it seems
probable that, in many cases at least, they would
have to represent portions of cells. This conception
he thinks is necessitated by the facts of the inheritance
of microscopic characters, and the inheritance of
these from different parents. He explains this by
supposing that each organic unit is developed from a
separate germ or "gemmule." The whole collection
of gemmules in the fertilised ovum he calls the stirp.
Hence we see that he adopts the preformation theory

* Lloyd Morgan's "Animal Life and Intelligence," p. 135.
t Wallace's " Darwinism," p. 443.

No. 324.— December 1891.

to explain the problem of development. But as we
shall presently see, his hypothesis differs in an
important manner from the complete conception of
preformation adopted by Darwin, the destructive
criticism of which by Professor Weismann we have
already quoted.

]\Ir. Galton argues from the transmission to off-
spring of latent characteristics, derived from ancestors
but not appearing in the body of the transmitter,
that many gemmules must remain altogether latent
during the lifetime. He conceives of the stirp as
dividing, before the beginning of embryonic develop-
ment, into two parts, first, those gemmules which are
predominant, and which enter upon embryonic
development, and secondly the "residue," which
remain latetit in the body, and frojn which the irpro-
diictive elements are mainly if not solely derived.
Here we are presented with an entirely new solution
of the problem of transmission. Mr. Galton explains
the difficulty by supposing not that the bearers of the
hereditary tendencies are redeveloped from the cells
of the body in each generation, but that there is a
continuity of gemmules from generation to generation,
and that the structure of each organism is built up
by certain representative gemmules, which achieve
development. Mr. Galton remarks that there are
two classes of facts of heredity : (l) the transmission
of inborn or congenital peculiarities, also congenital
in one or more ancestors, (2) the transmission of
those inborn peculiarities not congenital in ancestors,
but acquired owing to changes in the conditions of
life. He points out that Pangenesis was especially
devised to explain the latter class; but he remark
that the majority of these cases may be looked upon
as "a collection of coincidences," that it is "indeed
hard to find evidence of the power of the personal
structure to react upon the sexual elements that is not
open to serious objection," and that " we might almost
reserve our belief that the structural cells can react

N

>66

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

on the sexual elements at all." Hence Mr. Galton
only adopts the theory of Pangenesis as sitppkmcntary
and subordinate, to explain the cases in which ac-
quired characters may possibly be transmitted ; he
explains the primary facts of heredity by his theory
of the continuity of the reproductive elements. By
adopting this position he dispenses with Darwin's
conception of gemmules representing every stage in
ontogeny, and thus although he believes the *'or-

Professor Nageli's theory of heredity (with which
1 am only acquainted through Professor Weismann's
criiicism) is intimately bound up with his ideas of
phylogeny or race-development, with which we are
not concerned, but of that portion which deals v/ith
the two problems which we are keeping before us, a
short account must be given.

Professor Nageli's hypothesis reminds us to some
extent of Pangenesis, and to some extent of Mr.

Author.

Date.

Name.

Explanation of Explanation of
Transmission. | Development.

Bearing on the

Transmission of

Acquired Characters.

H. Spencer

1863

" Physiological
Units"

The assumed solidarity of the or-
ganism. A separated group of
physiological units or plastidules,
by means of the " polar forces"
or " vibratory movements " com-
mon to them and to the other
units, can build up an organism
like that from which they were
separated.

Involves such
transmission.

General ,
theory.

E. HLickel

1876

Perigenesis of
a Plastidule.

C. Darwin

1868

Pangenesis.

Redevelopment of
gemmules from
every cell in
the tody.

Preformation of
gemmules re-
p resen t ing
every cell ever
produced by
the parent,
which unite in
such a way that
they develop
in exactly the
right order.

Involves such
transmission.

Theories which
' recognise the
separate pro-
blems of\
transmission
and develop-
ment.

C. Nageli

1884

"Idioplasm"
theory.

Redevelopment of
somatic into
germ idio-
plasm.

Preformation of
germs (" An-
lagen").

Involves such
transmission.

F. Galton

1876

"Stirp"
theory.

Continuity of
*' residual gem-
mules."

Preformation of
gemmules re-
presenting "or-
ganic units."

The essential part
does not involve
such transmis-
sion, but the
complete theory
does not exclude
it in all cases.

A. Weis-
mann

1885

Continuity of
the germ
plasm.

Continuity of
germ-plasm
from genera-
tion to genera-
tion.

Epigenesis. Suc-
cessive trans-
formations of
nucleo-idio-
plasm during
development.

Excludes such
transmission.

ganic units " of adult structure to be preformed in the
germ, we can conceive of the separate "representa-
tive" gemmules developing epigenetically into the
adult structure. This does away with the difficulty
expressed by Professor Weismann in the criticism
above quoted. Mr. Galton's theory approaches
Professor Weismann's, but is nevertheless distinct
from the latter. We shall discuss the points of
difference more fully hereafter, and reserve' our
criticisms till then.

Spencer's hypothesis, but to its author belongs the
credit of originating the valuable conception of
"idioplasm." Professor Nageli supposes that there
is a network of solid substance extending throughout
the body, which determines the specific character of
the organism. This is idioplasm, and although
differing qualitatively in different species, its nature
is fundamentally the same in the different parts of the
body of the same organism. The development of an
organism is dependent upon the successive activity of

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

267

different parts of the idioplasm ; when any part has
become active, the tension between that part and the
rest becomes such that further growth of that part
cannot take place, but the next part begins to
grow actively.

The idioplasm is composed of germr, (' Anlagen ') of
the different structures, each of which, reacting under
the stimulation of the growth of the previous ones,
becomes active in its turn and produces the corre-
sponding structure. This is very like Darwin's
conception of the development of gemmules. When
all the stages of ontogeny have been passed through,
the idioplasm returns to its original state — never
having differed from it except in respect of "condi-
tions of tension and movement " — and produces germ-
cells. This is the theory of the "cyclical develop-
ment of the germ-plasm " and reminds one of Mr.
Spencer's views on physiological units, which are
also apparently fundamentally the same in different
parts of the body. If, however, there is such a
substance as idioplasm, it is to be found in the cell
nuclei, as we shall see hereafter, and cannot be
conceived of as forming a network throughout the
body. Furthermore it is impossible to conceive of
the difference between the idioplasm of, for instance,
a muscle-cell and a white blood-corpuscle as consist-
ing in a mere difference of " conditions of tension
and movement." Professor Nageli adopts the hy-
potheses of redevelbpment and preformation in
essence, though he considerably modifies former
conceptions.

Professor Weismann's hypothesis of the continuity
of the germ-plasm differs from all former theories by
his complete adoption of the epigenetic explanation
of ontogeny, and of the explanation by continuity of
the germ-plasm of the problem of transmission. He
supposes that a substance (germ-plasm) with a
specific molecular structure is handed on from
generation to generation. Part of this, at the
commencement of segmentation, is separated off for
the building up of the bodily structure, the rest is
preserved unchanged and is eventually transmitted to
the sexual cells. That portion which is converted
into the idioplasm of the body undergoes an actual
change of molecular structure at each stage of
ontogeny.

We are now in a position to arrange the various
theories of heredity we have considered in a table,
which shall show at a glance their kind of explana-
tion of the general problems of heredity, and as an
outcome of this their bearing upon the question of
the transmission of acquired characters. We see at
once from the table (p. 266) that (apart from Mr.
Spencer's and Professor Hackel's hypotheses) those
theories which explain the problem of transmission
by supposing that redevelopment of the specific
bearer of hereditary tendencies takes place in each
generation, involve the transmission of acquired
characters, while those which explain the problem of

transmission by supposing that this specific substance
is continuous from generation to generation do not.
And it is obvious that this must be so. We can form
no clear conception of how it is possible for acquired
characters to be reproduced as such in the next
generation except by the aid of the hypothesis of re-
development. Mr. Spencer's and Professor Hackel's
theories do not furnish such a clear conception. And
the clearest expression of the hypothesis of re-
development is undoubtedly to be found in Mr.
Darwin's theory of Pangenesis ; for Professor Nageli's
theory does not present us with a sufficiently definite
and intelligible mechanism.

The issue, then, seems at present really to be
between Pangenesis and a theory of continuity of
the specific hereditary tendency-bearing substance.
But we have seen that there are objections of the
gravest kind to the hypothesis of Pangenesis. It is
therefore incumbent upon us to examine more in de-
tail the theory of continuity as it has been expressed
by Mr. Galton and Professor Weismann. If any form
of it explains the general facts of heredity with ease
and certainty, and can be shown to be in accord with
the general tendency of research, we shall be justified
in accepting it, provisionally at least ; and we shall
be further justified in considering that this is, so far
as it goes, good evidence against the transmission of
acquired characters. It is perfectly true that the
transmission of acquired characters may take placc^
and yet that we may be unable, at present, to arrive
at a clear conception of the mechanism by which it
is brought about ; but it is also true that if, in the
absence of direct affirmative evidence on the point,
and from quite other considerations, the theory
which excludes such transmission can be shown to be
more likely to be correct than the theory which
involves it, we are forced to consider this fact alone
as evidence which negatives its probability.

ROSSENDALE RHIZOPODS.

No. 7.

NO Rhizopod belonging to the sub-order Filosa
has a more elegant and complex shell than
that of any of the seven species of Euglypha, which
is characterised by the colourless, transparent test,
being made up of oval plates, overlapping in such a
way as to form very definite and beautiful patterns,
and by being further ornamented by numerous spines
or hairs. Fortunately, some of the species are very
common and widely distributed, being found in the
ooze of most ponds and ditches, among Sphagnum,
and on dripping rocks with mosses and Algae.
During the short period I have devoted to the special
study of the Rhizopods, I have found hundreds of
individuals belonging to two species, Euglypha
alveolata, and E. cUiata. The former is the com-
moner species here, and is a very variable form, both

N 2

268

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

as regards size and definiteness of structure. Ordi-
narily, the shell is transparent and colourless, egg-
shaped, with the narrow end truncated by the mouth ;
but in some of the larger ones the lower end is pro-
longed, when it appears somewhat flask-shaped.
These larger forms I have not yet been able to find,
but in these, according to Professor Leidy, " the shell
is clearly seen to be composed of regular plates, of
nearly equal size, of oval form, arranged alternately
in longitudinal rows and overlapping at their con-
tiguous borders. This arrangement produces the
impression of hexagonal areas defined by zones of
smaller elliptical areas" (see Fig. 215). In the
smaller forms, which I have procured in abundance
from among mosses and Algae in several of our

Fie. i\i,.—Englypha aheolata. Specimen showing sarcode
retracted, and test with apparent diamond-shaped workings.

Fig. 215. — Ditto, pseudo-
podia extended.

Fig. 216. — Specimen of ditto
with four spines ; pseudo-
podia extended.

wells, the structure is not, by any means, so clearly
defined ; indeed, in the majority of individuals, the
structure of the shell is very obscure, and, when
seen at all, frequently appears only as fine, diamond-
shaped markings. Some specimens show from two
to six thorn-like spines of about equal length, attached
to the shell near the fundus or top ; in others these
appear to have been rubbed off. The sarcode is
generally colourless, though sometimes yellowish or
brown, occupying most of the shell, though often
constricted in the middle, in an hourglass manner, as
in Figs. 2 1 4, 2 1 5 and 216. Nucleus large, situated near
ihe fundus. The size of this species, like that of most
Rhizopods, varies considerably ; my specimens ave-
raged about 355 or ,i^ of an inch in length, but the

larger forms from Sphagnum are as much as thcxon of
an inch in length.

Fig. 214. Specimen with sarcode retracted, show-
ing hourglass-like contraction : test with diamond-
shaped markings.

Fig. 215. Prettily-marked form, pseudopodia ex-
tended.

Fig. 216. Another, with hourglass-like contraction
of sarcode ; pseudopodia extended ; with four spines.

Ejiglypha ciliata is exclusively of sphagnous habitat.
It very closely resembles E. aheolata, but the shell is
more compressed, and has a fringe of hairs or spines
round the top and sides. These spines vary consider-
ably, not only in numbers, but also in length and
strength, and in the amount of surface they cover.
In most other respects it is identical with E. alveolata.

Fig. 217. Empty colourless test, structure obscure,
but indicating overlapping plates.

Fig. 218. Another specimen, with finer and more
numerous spines, covering nearly the whole surface.
Trinema euchelys is one of the smallest, and also

■:v\Jji!U^a-A

mmMm-

Fig. 217. — Euglypha ciliata.

Fig. 218. — Ditto, another
specimen.

one of the commonest, of the testaceous Rhizopods.
It is a rare thing to find a pond or ditch which will
not furnish specimens of this ubiquitous animal. In
squeezings from Sphagnum I have procured them in
thousands, and, according to the authority previously
quoted, " it is often found in the earth about the
roots of mosses and other plants, even in such places
as roadsides, on the bark of trees, old wooden or
thatched roofs, and in the crevices of pavements of
cities." The shell is transparent, colourless and
pouch-like, with the oral end generally the smallest.
The mouth is circular, sub-terminal and inverted. In
a front or back view, the shell of ordinary specimens
is more or less ovoid, of homogeneous, chitinoid
membrane ; but in the larger forms, from sphagnous
swamps, the shell is made up of circular plates with
beaded borders. The large, handsome varieties I
have been unable to procure, the nearest approach
being an empty shell, from Sphagnum, with delicate
punctations arranged in circles on the shell. Fig, 222.
Although not a striking form, yet the glassy shell is
beautiful from the elegance of its curves, A nucleus

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

269

and several contracting vesicles are generally visible.
The sarcode, in all my specimens, is colourless, and
the pseudopodia, which are never numerous, are
protruded in short threads radiating from the mouth.
In moving about, the shell is tilted back from the
perpendicular, owing to the position of the mouth.
No testaceous Rhizopod is more variable in size than
Trinema ; I have seen specimens as small as the ji,^^ of
an inch in length, and the sphagnous forms may

Fig. 219. — Trine-
}na acinus. Side
view.

Fig. 220. — Ditto,
somewhat tilted.

Fig. 221. — Front
view, showing
rounded mouth.

Fig. 222. — Specimen of more
robust form of ditto.

Fig. 223. — Side view
of empty test.

reach jlg of an inch : but about 355 or -^^^^ of an inch
may be considered as average-sized specimens.

Fig. 219. Side view of Trinema, showing oblique
mouth, contracting vesicle, pseudopodia extended.
From a well among Algse.

Fig. 220. Another lateral view somewhat tilted.
From a well, &c.

Fig. 221. Front view, showing rounded sub-
terminal mouth.

Fig. 222. Front view of a more robust specimen
from Sphagnum, showing delicate punctations.

Fig. 223. Side view of empty test, showing the
inversion of the mouth.

This article is the concluding one as regards the
Rhizopods of the order Protoplasta, sub-orders Lobosa
and Filosa. In my next I propose to describe two or
three forms belonging to the order Heliozoa, which
differ in many material points from those previously
described.

J. E. Lord.

Rawtenstall.

NOTES ON AN INSECTIVOROUS PLANT.

ALL the plants of the genus Utricularia are
rendered highly interesting on account of their
peculiarly-constructed bladders. The greater bladder-
wort ( Utricularia vulgaris), one of the commonest, but
not the less interesting of the genus is frequently met
with in this country, inhabiting ponds, stagnant

pools, and foul ditches. It floats near the surface of
the water, and is entirely destitute of roots. The
leaves are finely dissected into capillary segments,
and furnished with small bladders usually measuring
about one-fifth of an inch in diameter. The lower, or
under side of the bladder is nearly straight, and the
outline of the upper part rounded and terminating on
the outside with several antenna-like prolongations.
Thus the whole bladder in appearance bears a
striking resemblance to the "water-flea." The
bladder is fonned of two layers or cells ; the outer
layer consists of large polygonal cells containing water,
protoplasm, and chlorophyll, and between these much
smaller cells are formed also containing protoplasm.
The cells of the inner layer are round, and are
also accompanied with smaller cells which support
four short pyramidal processes terminating in two
large rounded cells — sometimes inclined to be
elliptical in outline. The transparent and elastic
valve or lid, composed of two minute layers of cells
continuous with two layers of larger cells, extends
nearly to the opposite side of the bladder, and is then
folded under, and rests, or rather presses against the
collar or peristome. The surface of the valve is
furnished with glands, and on the inner side of the
collar numerous small bifid processes are crowded
together. Both the valve and the collar proceed
into the cavity of the bladder, the entire surface of
which is studded with quadrifid processes. Animals
gain ingress to the bladder by pressing against the
free edge of the valve, which being highly elastic
shuts again immediately, and thus prevents their
escape. From the peculiar structure of the bladders
it may be inferred that they are specially adapted
for the capture of minute animals. They have been
supposed by some naturalists to be air-bladders by
means of which the plant is effectually floated in the
water, but having cut off all the bladders from
several branches, I found the branches to float as
well without them as those with them. I have also
found several branches destitute of bladders, and
they floated well, the only marked difference being
that the plant was decidedly weaker than those
possessing them. The amount of organic matter
held in solution within the cavities of the bladders is
considerable — for they are nearly always found to
contain a greater or less number of minute animals,
which ultimately become asphyxiated ; disintegration
then follows, and absorption begins, for the minute
processes — which may be considered analogous to
root-hairs — when microscopically examined show
their contents to consist of irregularly-shaped masses
of matter containing protoplasm. I placed several
plants in bell-jars ; some were kept in comparatively
pure water — the water being changed at frequent
periods — while others were kept in water literally
teeming with infusoria ; the plants kept in the latter
condition were not only of a darker colour, but of a
more vigorous growth, and the quadrifid processes

270

HA RD Wl CKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

of the bladders when microscopally examined were
found to be filled with dense masses of matter
containing protoplasm. Plants kept in a purer
condition were sickly and much paler in colour, the
quadrifid processes being decidedly less dense in
their contents.

J. H. A. Hicks, F.R.H.S.

THE DORSAL PORES OF EARTHWORMS.

By the Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S., Author of
"Flowers and Flower-Lore," etc.

IF a specimen of the common earthworm is
examined, especially after having been pre-
served for a time in spirits, it will be found that a
number of pores exist on the back. They are most
readily seen on the girdle as a rule, and look exactly
like the holes which result from the puncture of a pin
or needle. These openings have been known for a
considerable time as the dorsal pores, a name which
serves not only to define their position, but also to
differerftiate them from the other openings which
exist on various portions of the worm's body — such as
the male or spermiducal pores, the nephridiopores,
and the puberty pores {tubcrcula pubertatis).

It is now many years since these apertures were
first detected. Who first observed them, it is
impossible to say. Equally difficult would it be to
decide who was the first to notice their presence in
describing the animals. In 1727 Dr. Derham, Canon
( of Windsor, wrote a very interesting work, entitled
Physico- Theology, in which he endeavours to demon-
strate " the being and attributes of God from His works
of Creation." He says that under the skin of worms
there lies a slimy juice, that they emit as occasion is,
at certain perforations between the annuli, to lubricate
the body, and facilitate their passage into the earth.'
A little later, however, he shows that a certain Dr.
Willis had previously written an account of these
" Foramina on the top of the back, adjoining to each
ring, supplying the place of lungs." Now Willis
published his work, Dc Aiiima Brutorum, in 1672, so
that for upwards of two hundred years the pores have
been known to science, to go no further back. It is
only in recent years, however, that they have been
carefully noted, and the position of the first pore
recorded for the different species of worm. It has
been thought by some that the first dorsal pore was so
uniformly placed in the various species of earthworms
that a specific character might be based thereon.
This, I am disposed to think, ^is not borne out by
facts.

Dr. Benham, one of our few English authorities on
the subject, says : " In many earthworms the cctlom
is put into communication with the exterior by means
of a series of dorsal pores, placed on the intersegmental
grooves. In Lumbricus these pores occur in every
somite after about segment viii. In Digaster and

Perionyx they commence just behind somite iv., in
Plutellus behind somite vi. In Pleurochaita and
Typhrcus the pores are present only behind the
clitellum. They are present in Acanthodrilus, and in
many Perichsetse. " In Allurus they begin behind
segment iii. or iv.

As will be inferred from the foregoing, a variety of
ideas have prevailed respecting the use to which these
apertures were devoted in worm economy. Willis
says they supply the place of lungs, and if Derham's
remarks apply to the dorsal pores, he regards them
simply as the openings through which lubricants were
poured. Lloyd Morgan is as cautious on the subject
as he is inaccurate. He says : " Every segment of
the body, except the first, has a dorsal pore opening
into the anterior part of the ring in the mid-dorsal
line, and two very minute pores, one on each side of
the ventral line, which are the external orifices of the
nephridia or segmental organs, whose function is
excretory." The dorsal pores are not found in the
typical earthworm :on every segment save the first,
and if they are, we are not favoured by the professor
with a vestige of an idea as to their use. He says :
" There are no specially differentiated respiratory
organs, respiration being apparently effected by the
surface of the body," so that he does not regard the
dorsal pores as lungs.

The most important contribution to the subject is
undoubtedly that which was made a few years ago by
Hermann Uhde, in a paper which deals chiefly with
the structure of the body- wall in earthworms.* He
points out that "the dorsal pore lies on the anterior
edge of the segment in which it occurs, and appears
on the intersegmental groove. It is absent from the
foremost segments, but the position of the first pore is
constant for a given species. In the common earth-
worm it occurs between viii. and ix., and in the
turgid worm between x. and xi." Claparade
formerly described the epidermis as being folded
inwards at the dorsal pore, just as it is where the setce
are situated, but Uhde shows that such is not the
case. By stripping off the epidermis I have been able
to detect the infolding of the cuticle around the setae,
but not around the dorsal pore, which, as Uhde
affirms, is a perforation through the epidermis and
the muscular layers. The pore appears, according to
Vejdovsky and others, to be wanting in fresh-water
worms or Limicok^. In some worms, when the
girdle is fully developed, the pores become closed
through the growing up of the cuticle around the
edge. This is not always the case, however, for the
mucous worm has been noted by some to be an
exception, while I have found that the dorsal pore on
the clitellum or girdle of some species is quite as
discernible after the organ has attained full develop-
ment as before.

* "Zeit. f. Wiss. Zool.," xlvi. pp. 85-142. Benham, "Q. J.
INIic. Soc," Aug. 1886, No. cv., pp. 102-4.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

271

If a worm is opened laterally, and the internal
organs removed, so as to leave only the body-wall, it
will be possible so to display this portion of the
animal as to see the whole series of pores in regular
succession. It will be easy then to observe that they
are connected with each other by a kind of tube
which runs right along the back of the worm. I am
a little doubtful whether this is what Uhde refers to
when he says that the epithelium of the body-cavity
passes across the muscular layers and meets the
cuticle around the edge of the pore. The pore has a
special set of muscle-bundles which form its sphincter
muscle.

Uhde does not think there is the slightest
connection between the pores and the nephridia,
which are excretory in their function. Yet, in a
sense, the dorsal pores play their part in the excretory
process, since the fluid contained in the coelom, or
body-cavity, as well as certain other substances which
in some species of earthworm are coloured, can be
caused to exude through them. Sometimes the
exudation is in drops, but some foreign species are
able to squirt it to a distance of a foot, much as Peri-
patus does. In these cases the process is perhaps
protective.

It is to Professor Busk that we are indebted,
through Professor Lankester, for one of the best
accounts of these apertures in English. In a remark-
able paper on the earthworm, published by the latter
in 1865, we have an illustration of the integument of a
worm with all the various pores found on the dorsal
surface carefully represented. " One of these orifices,
situated in the median dorsal line of the segment,
appears always to be larger than the others, and
penetrates directly to the perivisceral cavity. That
these openings form a very ready and frequent means
of escape to the colourless fluid may be ascertained by
handling a large earthworm, when some considerable
quantity is nearly invariably found to escape from its
dorsal surface." Nor is this all. Professor Busk says
that the fluid expressed from these pores was of a
dirty greyish colour, thin and opaque. Examined
under the microscope it contained numerous spherical
particles and pyriform granular bodies, besides
irregular organic particles.

This coloured fluid differs with the species of worm
examined. In some, as the brandling and turgid
worm it is yellow ; in others, as the mucous worm, it is
white ; while the red worm yields two kinds of
colouring matter.

Notwithstanding the large amount of attention
which has been paid to earthworms during the past
century, we are even now very badly informed on
many points connected with their economy, and there
is great need that someone with the necessary leisure,
means, and scientific training should investigate some
of the details more fully. I have been able to make
great progress with my work on the distribution and
revision of the British LumbricidK — till recently

almost totally neglected — and hope by the due publi-
cation of the new and interesting results to stimulate
further research on the part of others.

Meanwhile, so far as the dorsal pores are concerned,
they appear to be for the emission rather than the
introduction of fluids, and are apparently lubricative,
excretory and protective. Their homology with
certain organs found in other Annelids does not seem
to have been carefully ascertained — at any rate I
know of nothing on the subject in English.

ANIMALS AND MEDICINE.,

By HULWIDGEON.

Ungulata.

HORSE. — Among the more peculiar, not to say
nasty, subjects of Bate's " Dispensatory," was
an article which, as a soil fertilizer, has probably
contributed more than any other such to enrich our
larders with vegetable, and thereby animal, produce.
And, after undergoing the apothecary's fair imitation
of nature's disintegrating process, if it really possessed
any curative powers, there was little reason why it
should not have been as inoffensively serviceable as a
drug. Our forefathers evidently accredited it with a
profusion of medicinal qualities, and doing so, perhaps
were wise to pocket their squeamishness.

Still, few patients nowadays, I imagine, would
choose to swallow the two to six ounces, four times a
day, prescribed of Bate's Aquaanimalis (p. 2), a cure
for "pleurisies, pains, rheumatisms," and other
disorders. Yet such was the allotted dose of that
compound of some herbal products, distilled treacle,
and horse-dung. Salmon did his best to perpetuate
the remedy, such as it was, by recommending it in
addition against stone, gravel, and urinary affections.
Of this kind too was Bate's Potio pleiiritica (p. 556),
which comprehended two ounces of "juice expressed
from horse-dung by mixing with it white wine," and
which was "to be taken three or four times a day
after blood-letting." But how anybody could stand
blood-letting three or four times a day, for any
number of days, I am happily not called upon to
explain. Concerning this potion Dr. Salmon advises
us : "There ought to be six ounces of the white wine,
for thereby the juice of the horse-dung will be the
better extracted. And it will serve instead of a
vehicle to take the medicine in." To an alternative
recipe he adds that it " ought also to be stone horse-
dung and newly made." This was an "approved"
remedy for pleurisy, stitch in the side, colic, gripes,
stone, and a variety of other bowel derangements.

In the Testes equi prapai-ati, (Bate, p. 638), a
stallion was cut to provide the material which, " cut
in pieces and washed with white wine, speedily dryed
and reduced into powder," furnished a vaunted cure
for epilepsy, colic, and abdominal complaints. Salmon

272

HA RD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

also gave the dose, one dram twice daily, in a medium,
for convulsions and bowel distempers.

The mare was in no less requisition ; her milk was
administered in a diversity of forms. Caracosinos,
Cosmos, Koumiss (with variations of spelling), are
some of the names given in medicine to the sour
curdle, borrowed from the Tartars, which was not
first introduced at the Health Exhibition of 1884, but
a common medical prescription a dozen or more
decades before that date. Mare's milk in its large
proportion of lactose, its abundance of serum, and the
softness of its almost inseparable butter and cheese
(Hooper, pp. 498 et seq.), possessed distinctive
characters which sometimes rendered it more desirable
than other milks. The near approach of its qualities,
in general, to those of human milk naturally made it
an effectual substitute for the latter, and it was some-
times provided in default of asses' milk.

The horse was one of the animals from which
bezoar stones were most commonly procured [vide
Howard, vol. i. p. 332). Thus, even in death his
utility failed us not. Indeed, his carcase rendered us
posthumous service worthy of the rhapsodies of the
venerable meditator on a broomstick. Its hide when
flayed, tanned, dressed, made into shoe-leather, worn
out and even decayed, still possessed a benevolent
property, for we read (in Howard, vol. ii. p. 970),
that " the powder of a burnt old shoe sprinkled on
the place," is an effectual healer of galled flesh.
Truly, of all the friends of man, this one was faithful
to the last !

Perhaps I ought not to omit mention of the ignis
sapientiiim (or "heat of horse-dung"), a favourite
means of distilling and digesting drugs which was put
into frequent practice by the chemists of old. This
was accomplished by placing the matter in a closed
vessel, inserting it in a manure heap of the requisite
proportions, and dubbed in the vulgar tongue a
"dung-bath" or "horse's belly," and leaving it for a
varying length of time, according to the exigencies of
the operation. Salmon, who devotes a great deal of
instruction to the practical apothecary, sometimes
suggests alternative processes, " for want of the con-
veniency of horse-dung," but usually first counsels
its use. For instances of its application it will
suffice to refer the reader to pp. 36, 65, ill, 229, and
572 of Bate.

Horsehair was often of essential service to the
physician, as, by insertion, to keep open those
artificial ulcers yclept sdoiis {vide Hooper, p.
742). Its osseous system too, no doubt, was
answerable for a good many of the " calves-foot
jellies," and kindred preparations devoted to the
strengthening of the weak.

Ass. — When the Prior de Jonval indited his
celebrated panegyric on the value of the ass, he
omitted mention of, perhaps, one of its greatest titles
to commendation. As if to counterbalance this short-
coming, another familiar classic, Ur. Buchan, is

exuberant in his encomiums on this single head ;
pinning his canny faith on the nutritious qualities of
the milk this creature affords. "Convulsive or
nervous asthma," he tells us (p. 370), "is often
relieved by the use of asses' milk ; " but his chief
recommendation lies in the unstinted praise which he
bestowed on it as a sovereign remedy for phthisis,
praise which at once elevated it to the front rank of
consumption cures, and lent it a reputation which it
has not yet lost.

In writing of the treatment of consumption, the
doctor tells us (p. 163) : "Asses' milk is commonly
reckoned preferable to any other, but it cannot
always be obtained. ... It is hardly to be expected
that a gill or two of asses's milk, drank in the space
of twenty-four hours, should be able to produce any
considerable change in the humours. This medicine
however valuable, very seldom performs a cure.
The reason is obvious ; it is commonly used too late,
is taken in too small quantities, and is not duly
persisted in. I have known very extraordinary eff'ects
from asses' milk in obstinate coughs, which
threatened a consumption, and do verily believe, if
used at this period, that it would seldom fail. Asses'
milk ought to be drank, if possible, in its natural
warmth and, by a grown person, in the quantity ot
half an English pint at a time, four times, or at least
thrice a day ; a little light bread along with it, so as
to make it a kind of meal."

Asinum lac, subsequently wrote Hooper, "is much
esteemed in medicine," being " preferred to cow's
and other kinds, in phthisical cases, and where the
stomach is weak, as containing less oleaginous
particles, and being more easily converted into chyle."
"Asses' milk has a very strong resemblance to
human milk, in colour, smell and consistence. When
left at rest for a sufficient time, a cream forms upon
its surface, but by no means in such abundance as [on]
a woman's milk. Asses' milk differs from cow's milk
in its cream being less abundant and more insipid, in
its containing less curd, and in its possessing a
greater proportion of sugar. The milk of women,
mares and asses very nearly agree in their qualities."
Vide Hooper, pp. 77, 78 and 498—500.

The Onis, or asses' dung, which was "in repute "
with old Hippocrates, I do not find in any of the last
century prescriptions which I have examined. It is
perhaps needless to add that the ass was enrolled
among the furnishers of bezoar-stones, and that its
heels and skeleton were, at least, capable of affording
a quantum to our supply of gelatine.

Rhinoceros.— There is little doubt that the
rhinoceros was the producer of a share of the
unicorn's and unspecified ivory, dealt with under the
heads of Narwhal and Elephant respectively.* It is
observable that this brute is, in Pinkerton's edition of
"Marco Polo's Voyages" (chap, xxiii.) described

* Science-Gossip, 1890 vol., pp. 153, 154.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

273

as the unicorn, and the name has more or less cUmg
to it ever since. "Our Topsel" (as Izaac \Yalton
calls him), writing in the sixteenth century, remarks
that " all the later physicians attribute the virtue of
the unicorn's home to the rhinoceros's home, but
they are deceived by imitation of Isidorus and
Albertus, for there is none of the ancient Grecians
that have ever observed any medicine in the
rhinoceros. The Indians made bottles of their skins
wherein they put their lycion, or sjicaern tneJicatumy

Hog. — The most important article derivable from
the swine was that adipose matter upon which his
world-wide renown is based. Aximgia or Adeps
siiillu: was the name bestowed upon it in its crude state,
by men of medicine, and Axuiigia ciirata when it had
been purified. Adeps suillcc, says Hooper (p. 428),
with some apparent disregard for the strict rules
of orthography and syntax, " forms the base of many
unguents, and is often eaten by the poor instead of
butter." To cite its manifold uses, even in medicine,
would be quite superfluous. It occurs in nearly every
ointmentj both for cleansing and healing sores, and for
eruptions, ulcers, burns, excoriations, inflammations
and ocular complaints. Bate and Salmon also
prescribe " hog's grease," in combination with other
potent agents, for a multitude of skin diseases, and for
gout and nodes, " whitloes and felons." For fuller
details, vide Buchan, App. pp. 35 et scq. ; Bate, pp.
290-3, 402-3, 699, 703, 705, etc.

But piggy was not alone prolific in lard. Just as
in trade he provisions us with so many more varieties
of meat than his rivals, so in the laboratory he
maintained his advantage by the diversity of the
drugs he contributed. Salmon (p. 2), in discussing
Bate's Aqua antiphthisica, which required an ad-
mixture of calfs blood, tells us of other bloods that
" may equally serve in the same case ; but I have
found by experience that hog's blood exceeds them
ail." Another consumption cure is provided by
Salmon (p. 581), with six grains of the "Volatile
salt of hog's blood."

Salmon again (p. 247), nourished the emaciated
"almost to a miracle," with ten to twelve grains of
" volatile salt of hog's flesh " and two drams of sugar,
in four ounces of his Tinctura mitntiva, administered
three times a day-fasting ! For lung complaints he
prescribed (p. 597), half an ounce of "water
distilled from hog's flesh " in two ounces of syrup of
mjTrh. " Against phthisicks," moreover, he ordains
(P- 597) two grains of the salt of hog's flesh in a dose
of " syrup of pepons, pompions or melons ; " and, for
consumptive children (p. 596), another two grains in
a mixture of snail-syrup, canary wine and milk water.

The afterbirth of a sow (Bate, p. 641), when
washed in white wine, dried and pulverised, was a
remedy for falling sickness and some complaints
incident to women.

Pig's bladder was used to tie mixtures in, to dip
them in hot water and dissolve without dispersing

them (Bate, p. 48), and also for dressing wounds.
According to Hooper (p. 639), Plunkel's cancer
remedy should be " laid over the sore or cancer upon
a piece of pig's bladder cut to the size of the sore and
smeared with the yolk of an egg. The plaster must
not be stirred until it drops off, of itself, which will be
in a week."

Buchan records (p. 416), a curious use for hog's
flesh : If deafness proceeds from dryness of the ears,
some, instead of oil, put a small slice of fat bacon
into each ear, which is said to answer the purpose
very well."

Howard (vol ii. p. 970) tells us that " gallings,
produced by the wringing of uneasy shoes, are
mollified and kept from swelling by the application of
the lungs of a swine, warm, to the grieved part," and
" for gallings, burns and eruptions oipaptila:, a most
excellent plaistcr is prepared of one ounce of recent
swine's fat " and other articles.

The bezoar of the pig requires particular mention
Smcllet informs us ("Present State," vol. viii. p.
126) that "The countries that lie behind Malacca
abound with .... hog-stones, reckoned more
efficacious than the bezoar-stones," and of this opinion
we find ample confirmation elsewhere. Writes
Howard (vol. i. p. 333), the hog-bezoar "is found
in the East Indies in the gall-bladder of a boar.
In figure and size it resembles a filberd, though more
irregular. Its colour is not fixed, but most commonly
white with a teint of green ; it is smooth and shining,
and is valued at ten times its weight in gold. It is
said to be the best preservative against poison ; a
sovereign cure for the mordoxe, a kind of Indian
plague ; admirable against malignant fevers, small-
pox, most diseases of women, but promotes abortion
if used indiscreetly. To use it, they infuse it in water
or wine, till it has communicated a little bitterness to
it. The Indians prefer it to the goat bezoar."

" Boar's tooth" was one of the outlandish sources
of "first alcalies." Bate, on p. 635, includes it in an
antipleuritic powder.

FISH REARING UNDER FAVOURABLE
CIRCUMSTANCES.

UNDER the influence of continuous freshening
rains, joined to other favourable conditions,
the young Salmonidas hatched out last winter have
prospered exceedingly this year, at the various Fish-
Culture establishments ; and have achieved dimen-
sions, in some cases, almost unprecedented. Since
fish-culture was introduced we have been brought
into closer communion with many of the fluvial
forms ; and we are now able to watch their progress
from babyhood to maturity, with the result that we
understand more and more of the history of their
lives. We can tell at a glance how far they are
affected by meteorological and other conditions, and

274

HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSJF.

hence it is that we know how the fry have fared
during the past nine or ten months — the period
representing their age. A visit to an estabhshment
like that of the Midland Counties Fish-Culture
Establishment, at Malvern Wells, Worcestershire,
is the means of affording more practical information
in the space of an hour than we could possibly
gather, by dint of much exertion, in open waters
during a period occupying, perhaps, several months.
Indeed, it is impossible to ascertain the truth of
certain ichthyological matters unless investigations be
carried on under semi-artificial circumstances, whereby
the objects of study are always accessible.

When I last visited the Establishment referred to,
in the early part of last summer, the young trout
and salmon fry, hatched out during January and
February of the present year, were about two inches
in length, now they measure six inches. But it must
not be thought that all the young fish have achieved
similar dimensions to that mentioned. Like all other
animals, fish vary greatly in size, and while one
yearling trout may be seven inches long there are
not a few that attain to only two inches at that period
of their existence. It is possible that the difference
in the rate of growth is more marked among fish than
other animals. However this may be, we cannot
but recognise in this diversity the fact that it forms
part of the system which Nature provides against
over-population of waters. As it is, the smaller fish
are preyed upon by the larger ; and the fish-culturist
knows only too well that unless he steps in at the
juncture of affairs, when the fish reared by him are
old enough to obey their instincts and fall upon the
smaller and weaker of their congeners, he will lose a
large proportion of them and thus become defeated
in his endeavours to outdo Nature. He, therefore,
adopts the course of isolating the larger fish, first
sorting them into sizes, and the dire effects of canni-
balism are thereby frustrated.

The process of sorting the fish was recently carried
out before me and others, by Mr. Burgess, the
owner of the Establishment mentioned, and afforded
me great interest. All the " nursery " ponds, in which
the young fish have been reared during the spring
and summer, were subjected to a thorough examina-
tion and minute inspection. The plan adopted was
to draw the water off from each pond, leaving only
sufficient for the fish to inhabit during the investiga-
tion. And here, let me say, that each pond is so
constructed as to be quite independent of the other,
so that the water can be drawn off from any one
habitat without interfering with those adjoining it,
and without occasioning a cessation of the water-
supply. While the water is running away from the
pond, and its volume grows less and less, it is
interesting to note the behaviour of the fish, which
exhibit a certain amount of excitement and much
activity, as the water leaves them. Their efforts to
go with the stream, which gushes forth from the

waste-pipes, are frantic but ineffectual, as are also
their subsequent endeavours to hide from view and
enshroud themselves in holes and corners in their
dread of being launched into our element, which is
equally fatal to them as theirs is to us. But Mr.
Burgess's arrangements are so made that the fish are
never totally deprived of water, and while the opera-
tion of sorting them is in progress, they are well
provided for and their physical condition carefully
watched, so that not a single death ever occurs. As
the fish are presented to view when the water partially
flows away, we are enabled to inspect them closely,
and as we do so, we marvel that in so short a space
of time they have grown so rapidly. But on examin-
ing the water closely we note the cause of it, inas-
much as it is alive with all kinds of animate food
upon which the fish have built themselves up. The
operation of sorting over, and the smaller fish having
been removed from destruction, the water is re-ad-
mitted, to the great satisfaction of the fish remaining
in the pond. The other ponds are similarly treated
till they have all been overhauled, and their occupants
weeded out and accommodated with habitats cor-
responding with their size. It is doubtless more
convenient to maintain them according to age, but
it will be seen that, owing to the wide diversity of
growth, such a course is incompatible with the prin-
ciples of fish-culture. It is believed by the uniniti-
ated that all fry are of corresponding size when they
emerge from the ova. This is a great error. To
begin with, the eggs are of different sizes, and it will
be seen on examining the alevins that there is a
remarkable difference also in their dimensions.
Without doubt food and other conditions of habitat
tend to influence their growth, and therefore it does
not follow that because an alevin commences its
career at a size below the ordinary standard, it
remains a dwarf, any more than a full-sized one will
develop into a big fish if the conditions necessary to
its prosperity are absent. Again, fry may become
weak, and therefore less able to seek and obtain food,
and in this way be prevented from thriving ; or they
may suffer from a paucity of food at the outset of
their careers, just when they have absorbed their
self-contained sac, and in consequence of this never
recover.

Judging by the results produced at fish-cultural es-
tablishments, the past spring and summer have been
very favourable to fish-rearing ; and the satisfactory
reports made by fish-breeders as to the health, fine
growths and absence of disease among their Sal-
monidx confirm this opinion.

Ichthyologist.

The Christmas Lectures to juveniles will this year
be on "Life in Motion, or the Animal Machine"
(experimentally illustrated), and will be delivered by
Professor John G. McKendrick, M.D., F.R.S., the
professor of physiology in the University of Glasgow.

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P.

275

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
BRITISH DIPTERA.

ADDITIONAL NOTE.

THE accompanying twelve diagrams of wings of
Diptera, having, unfortunately, been omitted
from my recent paper on British Diptera in Science-
Gossip, I take the opportunity of correcting two
errors in previous diagrams.

In Fig. 147, {Liinnobki, Mg.,) the cross vein

forming the basal side of the discal cell should be
continued in a straight line till it meets the next vein
(the postical).

Fig. 149 is wrongly named Rhyphus. This genus
was correctly illustrated before, on page 37 (Fig. 26),
and Fig. 149 is a diagram of the wing of Tipula, L.

As the diagrams of wings have been scattered
through the article without regard to the letter-
press relating to the families they represented, it may
be as well to give a full list of them in their proper
order.

Fig. 224. — Tachma, M^.

Fig. 225. — Miisc-i, L

Fig. 226. — Hyetodesia, Rond.

Fig. 227. — HydrotiEa, Desv.

Fig. 22S. — Scatophaga, Mg.

Fig. 229. — Teplirilis, Latr.

Fig. 230. — Meroinyza, Mg.

Fig. 2y!.. — Chloro;s, Mg.

Fi^. 232. — Lhnosina, ^Icq.

Fig. 2-ii.—Phytomyza, Fall.

Fig. 234.— P/ifjra, Latr.

Fig. 235. — Hippohosca, L.

CccidomyidiB —

Cecidomyia.

Diplosis.

Hormomyia.
Mycetophilida —

Sciara.

Mycetophila.

Glaphyroptera.
Bibionidce — •

Scatopse.

Bibio.
Siniuliida—

Simulium.
C hirono7nid(^ —

Chironomus.

Tanypus.
PsychodidcE —

Psychoda.

Pericoma.
CJilicidis —

Culex.
DixidiE — •

Dixa.

TipulidcE —

Ptychoptera.

Liranobia.

Tipula.
Rhyphidx —

Rhyphus.
Stratwinyidir^

Stratiomyia.
Xylopka zi-ice —

Xylophagus.
Tabanidce — •

Tabanus.
Lepiidiz —

Leptis.
Asilidce —

Dioctria.

Asilus.
BonibylidcE —

Anthrax.

Bombylius.
TherevidiE —

Thereva.

ScenopinidiP —

Scenopinus.
CyrtidcE —

Paracrocera.
Empidcc—r

Rhamphomyia.

Empis.

Hilara.

Clinocera.

Tachydromia.
DolichopidcE —

Dolichopus.

Medeterus.

Hydrophorus.
Loncliopteridce — ■

Lonchoptera.
Platyfiezidir—

Platypeza.
PipicnculidcE—'

Pipunculus.
Syrfrhidcs —

Chrysogaster.

Syrphus.

Volucella.

Eristalis.

Criorhina.

Xylota.

Chrysotoxum.
Conopidig—

Conops.
CEstridie —

Oistrus.

MuscidcE —
Tachina.
Musca.
Hyetodesia.
Hydrotaea.
Scatophaga.
Tephritis.
Meromyza.

Chlorops.

Phytomyza.

Limosina.

Phorida: —
Phora.

Hippoboscidiz—
Hippobosca.

I hope during the winter to be able to extend my
notes for beginners, and to write a lengthy supple-
ment to my previous article ; this supplement con-
sisting principally of analytical tables of genera. I
shall also add notes on parasitic Diptera, and the
geological antiquity of this order.

E. Brunetti.

129 Grosvmor Park, Catnberwell, S.E.

276

HARD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OSS IF.

EUROPEAN BUTTERFLIES.

I PAID a visit to the Continent last summer, for
the purpose of obtaining some of the rarer
species of butterflies for my collection of European
Rhopalocera, and though I was not so successful as I
had hoped to be, a few notes about my captures may
perhaps interest some of your readers.

My first stopping-place was Coblence, where I
arrived about the middle of May.

I went there chiefly in the hope of again seeing
Orchis hircina, a plant which I found there ten or
twelve years ago, but which, although I have al-
ways since been on the look-out for it, I have never
seen elsewhere.

I was, however, entirely unsuccessful in my search
for it, although I went over the old ground day after
day for a week : it had evidently been extirpated.

The only at all rare orchis which I saw was
militai'is, of which, however, I found no more than
two or three plants.

As to butterflies, they were few and far between.
Napi, Cardamines and Egeria, with some Brassicai,
comprising nearly all the species I met with.

This was in all probability owing partly to the
lateness of the season, and in part to the great abun-
dance of rain that fell whilst I was there.

My next stopping-place was Heidelberg. I went
there chiefly in the hope of getting larvre of Euphorbia.
These occur in great abundance on the right bank of
the Neckar, just below the town. I was not success-
ful, however, in my searches, as there was not a
single caterpillar to be seen up to the 14th of June,
when I left for Freiburg (in Baden), though in some
seasons I have found them more than half-grown on
that date, and I once had plenty of pupa; by the first
week in July, and the imago out by the middle of
that month. Crataegi was just coming when I was
leaving. Galatea, generally abundant — as it is almost
everywhere — was, however, nowhere to be seen, nor
were Podalirius, Ilia, Pruni, Sibylla, Virgaurise or
Ar/on, though in ordinary seasons I should have
found all of them more or less plentiful. My cap-
tures comprised Machaon (very fine), Aurinia (taken
on first emerging, and therefore perfect). Hyale
apparently just out of the chrysalis — I cannot help
thinking these must have hybernated as pupae — and
a very fine lot of Paniscus, an insect that was to be
seen almost everywhere in the woods. In addition
to the above, I got three very fine specimens of the
pretty Arcania, one or two Cinxia, and a single
Athalia ; this last was just emerging as I was leaving.
It follows Aurinia and Euphrosyne on a rough, damp
meadow lying quite in the forest behind Ziegelhausen.

By the way, curiously enough, there are in this
meadow quite a number of plants of that almost
typical Alpine plant Arnica vioniana. Aurinia and
Athalia — and indeed Euphrosyne too — occur here in
great profusion when they are in season. They are

followed by Aglacia, which is more abundant at this
spot than any other place that I know of. Paphia,
too, occurs, but more spanngly, and is more confined
to the forest paths.

The larvae of Rhamni was plentiful everywhere.
I took a few, from which I obtained some fine
specimens for my cabinet. The beautiful moth Tau
was plentiful in the woods, and dashed about in its
apparently reckless flight in all directions.

I went to Freiburg, in the expectation of getting
Rutilus — the continental form of the extinct Dispar —
at New Breisach (about twelve miles distant), where,
according to Kane, it is abundant at the proper
seasons, which are nominally early in June and
August ; but in June I totally failed in my object,
owing, I have no doubt, to the lateness of the season.
In September, however, I managed to catch about
two dozen of this pretty little insect, and in fact I
found three caterpillars feeding on the great water-
dock (/?. hydrolapathuin) — the food-plant of Dispar j
these pupated safely ; but to my great regret the box
which contained them was thrown down by accident,
and two in consequence came out crippled, the
third, however, was a very perfect male. Rutilus
is at its best a sorry representative of the type, the
extinction of which is a fact ever to be lamented by
English Lepidopterists. Dispar was a far finer insect
both as to size and depth of colour than any other
European Polyommatus with which I am acquainted.

When at Freiburg in June, I found Echine in pro-
fusion in a grassy road alongside a damp wood, a
mile or two west of the town. They were generally
settled on the ground in large flocks of from fifty to a
hundred ; they flew up on being approached, but soon
alighted again and in companies as before. They
were in the finest possible condition, and I got a
good serines of perfect specimens.

Galatea and CratKgi were also plentiful, as were
also many other commoner species. I got one good
example of Argiades, the only specimen of that insect
I ever saw alive, and one Dictynna.

In September I got a few Prorsa, and a good series
of the female of Dorilis, one being a nice variety. I
also saw at New Breisach a few Daplidice, and a good
many Comma ; Machaon, too, was fairly plentiful, and
I secured one shattered specimen of Circe, and saw
a second, which escaped my net by flying across a
river that I could not ford. Circe is a very fine and
striking-looking insect, some specimens are as much
as three inches and a quarter in expanse of wing.
The contrast of the pure white band on the black
ground-colour of the wings, renders it a very con-
spicuous object when flying.

At the end of the third week in June, I moved on
to Neuchatel, in the woods above which place I
hoped to find Ilia. In this I was altogether unsuc-
cessful, as I did not see a single specimen of that
butterfly.

I was evidently too soon for it in such a backward

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

277

season. I, however, obtained a fine series of Semi-
argus and of Lycaon, and a few Ilippothoe — these in
a meadow at Chaumont, about 2,400 feet above
Neuchatel — a few A polios, two or three Athalias
and Cinxias, and a Carthemi or two. I saw numbers
of Machaon and of Galatea, Hyale, and Cratcegi, as
well as many other common species.

The woods above the town were full of the finest
spikes of the orchis H. bifolia I ever had the good
fortune to see, and I found nine plants of C. ffrandi-
flora in the same woods, the average number of flowers
on a spike being, in this case, six ^vide SciENCE-
GossiP 1890, p. 92).

I must not omit to mention that when at Neu-
chatel, I made an excursion by steamer to the
picturesque town of Morat, and that when the boat
was passing through the river which unites the two
lakes, a beautiful example of the Squacco heron,
E. ralloides, flew up out of some reeds in a marshy
meadow close by, and as it flew in a sort of half-
circle round the boat at a distance of about seventy
or eighty yards, it afforded me a fine opportunity of
making a leisurely inspection of its beauty.

On the whole I had been unfortunate up to this
time, as I had not obtained at any of the places named
what I had gone there for. Better luck, however,
awaited me at Zermatt and Berisal, but I must post-
pone the particulars of my captures at those places to
another occasion, if you, Mr. Editor, will give me
space in a future number of your paper for some
further notes.

R. B. P.

Eastbourne.

THE RECORD IN ZONITES.

IT was indeed a lovely hot afternoon last summer
in that little Kentish village where I had drifted
during a conchological walking-tour. Giving myself
and the snails a rest, I strolled into the cool old flint
church, with twelve other people. I wandered into
an old square pew, shut the door and settled down in
one corner. In its appointed place the sermon began.
I am sorry I cannot say what the subject of the dis-
course was, for a very large hornet would inspect me
all over, humming so loud that I heard not the words
of the preacher, and finally it settled on my knee.
Quickly I was reaching for a large bible in the
corner, wherewith to slay it, when a voice at my
elbow said in an undertone, "Do you want any very
large Zonites ? "

Somehow I was not surprised at the presence of
a stranger in the closed pew, or his knowing that I
certainly did covet very large Zonites.

" How large ? " I inquired mechanically.

" Oh, I will show you some as big as any silver
coin you have, provided, of course, I keep the coin.

I quietly produced a shilling.

" Pooooh ! " He seemed to swell with contempt.

I hastily produced a florin.

" That's better," replied he, with apparently
diminishing bulk ; " that will do for Cellarius, but if
it comes to Glaber, I ask gold ! "

My eagerness and rashness expanded. I whispered
loudly, " I will give you a new £i) piece, if you will
cover it with a Glaber of equal size."

Now this was wrong of me, I know, for I had not
got such a thing, but somehow it seemed all right
then. He quietly rose, and we guiltily glided down
the aisle, out of the door (my hand clutching his arm),
till he paused under the old yew-tree.

" Under this stone," said he ; and I at once knelt
down and began to struggle with an old mossy head-
stone which had apparently lain a century un^
disturbed.

But before I could effect my purpose, he put his
foot on it, as if by accident, saying :

"You will, doubtless, be interested to hear that I
have just published a list of names for the band
varieties of H. pisana.^^

"Indeed!" said I, "that seems a great many.
Why, the various combinations of seventeen bands
and their omissions and coalitions must amount to
several millions ! "

He (impatiently), "Yes, of course it does,"

I (astonished and fumbling at the stone), " Where
did you get the names from ? "

He (airily), "Oh, I named them after my con-
chological friends and correspondents. There's
Jonesii and Brownii and — "

"I am almost afraid," interrupted I, "that we
shall hardly get to the end of the list of your rather
numerous friends before they come out of church."

" And," continued he complacently, " I am about
to publish a new list of the six hundred true species
of British Pisidia with their numerous varieties."

" But," protested I, "Jeffreys says — "

He (loftily), " I never heard of him."

I (pityingly), "Well, it is time you did. He
wrote — "

He (more loftily still), " I never read what people
write."

I (angrily), " Go and read Jeffreys before you
presume — "

He (angrily, and showing signs of inflation),
" Jeff"reys be— "

I (wrathfully), " Sir ! I'll thank you to speak
respectfully of the learned Dr. ! "

He (with rapidly increasing bulk), "I say Jeffreys
be—"

He never finished the sentence, with a mighty tug
I wrenched up the ponderous stone and smote him
with it Eugene- Aram fashion. He fell beneath it,
collapsing like a catcall bladder and giving out much
the same sound as that instrument. I had killed him.
"Never mind the windbag," thought I, "have I
broken any of the Zonites ? •_

278

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

I stooped down and looked. There they were ;
large as the Algirus, but smooth and glistening !
Cellarius, Glaber, and, oh joy ! a pale green
Radiatulus as large as a florin, with the regular close-
set stria; resplendent ! A box— of course I had come
without one on Sunday ! Happy thought, my pouch !
I emptied the tobacco hurriedly over the collapsed
corpse and reached eagerly for the prey. Hark ! a
rustling ! They must be coming out of church ;
" And now — "'

Dear friends, if that sermon had only lasted two
seconds longer I should have broken the record in
British Zonites.

L. E. Adams.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

At the Entomological Society of London on the
4th November, Dr. D. Sharp, F.R.S., Vice-
Tresident in the chair, Mr. Frederick Enock gave a
most interesting account of the life-history of Atypus
piceiis — the British representative of the Trap-door
Spiders — though it does not make a true trap-door
nest, but excavates a hole into the sand, lining it
with silk, the aerial portion of a mature nest protrud-
ing above ground about two to three inches. This
purse-like nest is the work of years, the newly-
emerged baby spiderling making a tiny tube one
sixteenth of an inch in diameter and one inch long —
' increasing it in drain and length as it increases in
size, until it sometimes reaches fifteen inches in
length.

The anatomy of the creature was carefully and
fully described, the purpose of the vertical movement
of the huge jaws and fangs being clearly shown, and
the extraordinary ingenuity displayed in obtaining its
food : for no sooner does a fly alight on the outside
than the fact is communicated to the spider at the
bottom by setting the vertical lines or threads in
motion, the spider stealthily ascends until exactly
underneath the fly, when with lightning-like rapidity
it drives its long fangs through the sand-covered tube
and into the fly, which it quickly drags right through
and down to the bottom of its nest, where it quietly
sucks it dry, ascending again in a few minutes to
repair and cover in the rent. The interesting court-
ship of the male was explained, and the domestic
economy, finishing up with the tragedy of the female
killing her partner, sucking him dry, and then
throwing his dried-up skin out of the nest.

Every detail in the life-history of this spider was
most elaborately illustrated by a very large number
of exquisite photographs made by Mr. Enock from
his original drawings. The effect when shown by
the oxy-hydrogen, lantern was most striking, many of
the movements of the spider being shown in a most
realistic manner.

We are pleased to draw the attention of our
readers to Messrs. Dulau and Go's new Catalogue of
Zoological and Palseontological Works.

The second largest electric lighting installation in
Liverpool has been put in Messrs. Henechsberg and
Ellis's, University House, Islington, by Messrs A.
Hall & Co. of that city. The shop is lighted by 140
glow lamps ; the windows are fitted with electroliers,
and the turret is surmounted by a twenty-ampere arc
lamp, which is visible from the Welsh mountains, and
will form a beacon-light for shipping entering the
Mersey.

An amusing controversy has been taking place in
the Manchester City News, respecting the alleged
virtue of " Halvivi," as a specific against sea-
sickness.

From various parts of Great Britain, we have
received notes of the unusual lateness of the swallows
in leaving us this year. Sometimes these swallows
are martins !

On November 30th, in the large hall of the
Athenaeum, Bury St. Edmunds, under the presidency
of Earl Cadogan, K.G., Dr. J. E. Taylor, editor of
Science Gossip, gave an illustrated lecture to a large
audience " On the Probability of finding Coal in East
Anglia." It is at Culford, on Earl Cadogan's estate,
near Bury, that the supposed primary rocks have
been struck at the comparatively small depth of
640 feet.

We confess to a weakness for second-hand book
catalogues and for old books generally. Messrs.
Pickering and Chatto's last " Book Lover's Leaflet"
is one of the most delightful and novel of the series
they have yet issued.

For ordinary nervous toothache, which is caused
by the nervous system being out of order or by
excessive fatigue, a very hot bath will so soothe the
nerves that sleep will naturally follow, and upon
getting up, the patient will feel very much refreshed,
and the toothache will be a thing of the past. For
what is known as "jumping toothache," hot, dry
flannel applied to the face and neck is very effective.
For common toothache which is caused by indiges-
tion, or by strong, sweet acid, or anything very hot
or cold in a decayed tooth, a little piece of cotton
steeped in strong camphor, or oil of cloves, is the
best remedy.

MICROSCOPY.

New Slides. — We have received from Mr. Ernest
Hinton, 12 Vosley Road, Upper Holloway, two
exceedingly beautiful and interesting preparations :
the young or larval form of the pretty sea-horse

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

279

{Hippocampus brevirostris), best viewed with parabo-
loid ; the other is a slide of one of the larva hy-
drozoa {Peiinaria Carolina), with tentacles fully ex-
tended ; also a paraboloid object exquisitely lovely,
and in Mr. Ilinton's best style of mounting.

ZOOLOGY.

Black-Vei.xed White Butterfly. — It is
curious how scarce this butterfly seems to have be-
come of late years. In Newman's "British Butter-
flies " it is described as being then (1869) common in
Monmouthshire, and "in profusion at Strood," and
twenty-five other localities are given, in only three of
which it is noted as being " rare " or " scarce," while
in one it is said to have been "most abundant in
1858." I should be glad if any reader of SciENCE-
Gossip, who has captured or seen it within the last
twenty years, would give some information about it.
I am aware it was taken at Ramsgate three years ago,
and Mr. Harcourt-Bath mentions in the "Garner"
that a specimen was taken in Shropshire last June,
but it has been noticeably absent from "capture"
lists for years past, and seemed to have quite dis-
appeared from the British insect fauna. — Albert H.
Waters, Cambridge.

Monstrosity of Clausilia rugosa. — -The
occurrence of a shell with two independent apertures,
as figured and described by H. Downes, on p. 257,
is rather rare. Still several similar cases are recorded
in the conchological literature of the last fifty years,
some of which are given by Moquin-Tandon in his
" Moll, de France," vol. i., p. 323. It may be
interesting to collectors unacquainted with this work,
and useful to those who in future years hunt up the
curiosities of the past, to have the details brought
together here in connection with the example figured
last month. The French author states that Hait-
mann had observed this anomaly in Claicsilia
plicata and C. saxatilis, Duges in C. laminata,
.Sarrat in C. bidens (Linn.), and Pavtiot in C. solida.
To these he adds, from his own observation, C. 7-olphii
and C, nigricans, and gives a figure of the last-named
(pi. xxiv. p. 19). Again, early in the present year
T. D. A. Cockerell exhibited at a meeting of the
Zool. Soc. (see Reports of meeting held Feb. 17), an
example of C. riigosa (^ — 7iigricd7ts) in a similar
condition. Then among Pupc-e Moquin-Tandon
mentions F. cylindrica as communicated to him by
^lichel and P. polyodon as seen by himself in a
museum. The questions arise, why is this anomaly
confined (as it appears to be) to these two genera?
what is its cause ? and how does the animal effect
the perforation of its shell to construct its "back-
door " ? All the species above mentioned have the
aperture of the shell more or less constricted or
armed with plaits, folds, or teeth, which, while
serving their purpose of barring the entrance against

living foes, are liable to become blocked with grit or
other matter, lodged too tightly for the animal's
power of clearance. The Clausilire, . moreover, are
liable to have the elastic hinge of their little clausium
disarranged, or the flap itself dislocated, from similar
causes. The prisoner is then bound to break through
elsewhere, or perish. The author further states that
he had in his cabinet two Clausilire with double
aperture, showing obstructions in situ ; in one case
(bidens) the old aperture had a fragment of stalk
wedged between two folds, in the other case
(laminata) the clausium was fixed fast by a grain of
quartz. Judging by the absence of records, shells
with large and simple mouths are not liable to such
an accident. As to the means employed to make a
new outlet, there can be little doubt that the jaw is
the instrument. If space allowed, evidence might be
adduced. Will H. D. kindly complete his record by
mentioning locality. — C. Ashford, Christchurch.

BOTANY.

CoRDYLiNE OR Drac^na indivisa. — I do not
know whether English horticulturists grow many
New Zealand trees or shrubs. There is one of the
Dracsena family in this country that certainly deserves
to he well-known ; it is called by the Maories Toe, is
most striking in appearance and delightfully oriental
in effect, is very hardy, and, like many others of the
family, will easily transplant when small. I will try to
describe one I lately saw at the Maori pah or village
that rejoices in the name of Koroniti, the nearest the
Maori tongue can get to Corinth. The stem of the
tree was about seven feet high and about ten inches
in diameter all the length. When the broad and
beautifully bordered leaves spread gracefully out and
upward, the outer leaves being some eight inches
across, and three to four feet long, and not so sharp-
pointed as the leaves of the Yucca, the broad
bronze margin varying to over half inch in width, —
makes the tree one to be remembered. Its botanical
name is Cordyline indivisa. Koroniti is a good-
sized pah, situated between forty and fifty miles up
the Wanganui river ; it is neatly laid out, and where
the spaces between the rows of whares or huts cross
at right angles there are large walnut-trees that were
full of fniit when I was there. These trees were planted
by the Missionaries many years ago, when the natives
were not too proud to eat a man if he was in good
condition, and had no friends who might demand
payment. I was much struck with the neatness of
the pah ; every fallen leaf was carefully swept up
every day, and the little patches of tobacco growing
round each whare, with their large green leaves and
pink flowers gave the whole a cheerful and bright
appearance, quite in keeping with the merry laughter
of numbers of Maori boys and girls. At this place
there lives a man named Hori Pukeika, versed in all

28o

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

the various kinds of tattooing and carving, and his
skill with the knife and graver is both wonderful and
profitable. However, I have got away from my start-
ing-point, which was to draw attention to the beauties
of the beautiful C. indivisa ; and hope, if it has not
already, it will soon find a place in the grounds and
gardens about English homes ; its appearance is
tropical, its form beautiful, with the curious fact of
its leaves being quite elastic. — /. W. B,, IVangatiui.

Braunton Burrows. — I was very much inte-
rested in reading Mr. Collins' account of his trip to
Braunton Burrows, described in Science-Gossip for
October. I have paid several visits to this " Sandy
Paradise of botanists," and can strongly recommend
it to the notice of collectors. Braunton is only a few
miles by rail from either Barnstaple or Ilfracombe,
and the Burrows begin about a mile from the station,
but are best approached through Mellilot Lane, so
called from the abundance of Melilotus officinalis
growing there. I have, at one time or another, found
all the plants mentioned by Mr. Collins on the
Burrows, excepting Iris fcetidissima, which I have
overlooked. Last August Scirptis holoscluvns was
growing in great abundance near the lighthouse, and
was quite easily to be distinguished from its relative,
Junais aaitus, also growing freely in that locality.
Among other rare plants not mentioned by Mr.
Collins, I have found growing on Braunton Burrows
the following : — CEnothera bietinis, Silybum mari-
aimm, Teucritun scordiiivi (this grows freely in
many of the little boggy valleys which are bounded
by sand-hills ; Ilypocharis glabra, growing scantily
near the lighthouse. This by no means exhausts
the rarities of tlie Burrows, as many other plants,
more or less uncommon, grow there, e.g. Artemisia
maritima, Scirpus fltiitans, Asperiigo procumbetis,
and Erigeron acris. On a fine summer day, a botanist
must indeed be in sore straits, if he fail to be happy
on Braunton Burrows. — F. H. IVeekes, York.

GEOLOGY.

Remarkable Fossils.— There will soon start for
Washington a procession of monsters more marvellous
than even the mind of a Barnum could have con-
ceived. In this wonderful parade will be gigantic
reptiles as big as good-sized houses, some of them
one hundred feet in length, flying dragons with
twenty-five feet spread of wing, huge birds with teeth,
mammals three times the size of elephants, sharks as
large as the hugest whales, and countless specimens
more of equal strangeness. For nine years past the
United States Government has been quarrying for the
skeletons of these strange creatures, and now the vast
collection, stored at New Haven, is being prepared
for delivery to the National Museum at Washington,
which building, however, is not large enough to hold

more than half of it, so that the rest will follow when
Congress has decided upon its accommodation. The
business of digging for these enormous fossils is very
much like other mining operations. In various parts
of the west there are great deposits of them, into which
scientific enthusiasts delve as eagerly as in other parts
other enthusiasts delve for gold. One of the chosen
hunting-grounds is the region between the Rockies
and the Wasatch mountains. Ages ago the upheaval
of these hills by geologic action cut off the portion of
what had been sea between these ranges from the
ocean, and the water thus shut away formed large
lakes. One of these existed at Wyoming, and the
mighty antediluvian mammals gathered in herds
around it, to feed on the succulent vegetation of what
was then a tropical land. They lived there and died
natural deaths, or got mired in the mud when they
went to drink, and the sediment deposited in the
water covered up their bones and preserved them from
decay. By and by the sediment reached a mile in
thickness, holding between its layers these ancient
skeletons, distributed like currants in a cake. Then
the water, draining off, left the land dry, and then
subsequent floods washed away parts of the sediment,
leaving picturesque cliffs, peaks, and columns, among
which the scientific explorer wanders with a keen
eye for a bit of bone projecting from the face of a
cliff, exposed by the action of water trickling down
the hill-side ; and when he has found it, a party of
men is at once set to work with drill, blast, and
pickaxe. Sometimes the find may result in a great
deposit of prehistoric monsters being struck. When
this is the case it is kept dark, for fear of the piracies
of rival men of science. Professor O. C. Marsh, who
directs the gathering of the Government collection,
has such monster mines of his own all over the West,
from which he can draw to order complete skeletons
of gigantic creatures which would put the dragons
and griffins of medieval story to the blush. They have
quarried out of the solid rock in Wyoming the
complete skeleton of a reptile, the Brontosaur. It
was sixty feet long, stood fifteen high when alive,
and weighed twenty tons. Cast in the rock from
which it was taken was a mould of one of its eye-
balls. The Triceratops was [also discovered in the
same neighbourhood. The animal had an enormous
bony fiill six feet across round its neck, which curious
development was evidently intended for the attach-
ment of the muscles necessary to hold up the huge
head ; for the beast, although only thirty feet long,
was as massive as an armour-plate, and had a sharp
and horny beak, not to mention a horn on his nose
and another on his forehead, the latter two and a
half feet in length. The Titanosaur abounds in
Colorado ; so does the Iguanodon, which had a
nipping beak like a turtle's, and walked erect, tower-
ing to the height of forty to fifty feet, and using its
huge tail for a support. Most of these monsters were
harmless creatures, with very little brain power.

HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

281

Many of these vegetarian colossi had not much more
notion of self-defence than kicking. The Loelaps was
forty feet long, stood twenty-five feet high on its hind-
legs, and was built like a kangaroo. It was the most
astonishing jumper that ever existed, with teeth for
cutting and sharp claws on the front feet, evidently
designed for tearing out its adversary's eyes. Hardly
less formidable was the Stegosaur, which was sheathed
in armour-plates from two to three feet in width, and
had as weapon of offence a powerful tail armed near
the end on both sides with sharp spikes two feet long.
A peculiarity in this animal's anatomy was an en-
largement of the spinal cord at the end of the back ;
this expansion of brain material was ten times as big
as the brain in the skull itself, and was intended to
supply power for the wagging of that stupendous
spiked tail. Equally large and dangerous were the
Megalosaur and Dinosaur, with jaws armed with
huge sabre-like teeth, who went about on their hind-
legs, seeking something to devour.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

"Sporting" Clover.— Specimens of Trifolinm
repens have on several occasions been recorded in
which the sepals have developed into trifoliate leaves.
This summer I hape found examples of this " sport"
both in the Grantchester Meadows, Cambs., and also
in South Wales. Possibly the wet summer may be
accountable for them. — G. H. Bryan.

Song of the Pied Wagtail. — As the song of
the pied wagtail seems to be so little known, and in
the books I have referred to (by Montague, Yarrell,
Wood, and Harding) is only noticed in one, viz., that
by Col. Montague, I think it may be of interest to
mention that so late as October 27 last, at Tunbridge
Wells, I heard a pied wagtail singing very prettily
and softly from the top of my house. The song I
shall describe as a gentle warbling song, something
like a weak and soit robin's, and having some
resemblance to a subdued lark's. The song was
continued, though of course with breaks, for some
two or three minutes, and 1 thought before I saw the
bird that it was a wagtail that was singing, as I
heard the ordinary short double note. I have only
once before heard a wagtail singing, and that was
about eight years ago at Southport, and on that
occasion the song seemed to me more like the
muffled song of a skylark, than the song which I
heard last month. — Borderer.

Song ok the Pied Wagtail.— With reference
to the note on the song of the pied wagtail in a recent
"Field," I may state that on two occasions I have
heard the song of this bird, which, as your corre-
spondent states, seems to be little known. In fact, I
did not know that it possessed a song at all (except
the usual chirrup) until I heard one sing on March
19th, 1887, while perched on one of the topmost
twigs of a hedge. I heard another singing on March
2lst, 1888, though not so nicely. I have read
several Natural Histories by different authors, in
which no reference is made to the song of this bird. —
H. G. Ward. {North Marston).

I observe " Borderer's " remarks upon the song
of the pied wagtail. I heard one sing most sweetly

near Moulton, some five years since. I well
remember the circumstance. I was walking in the
parish of Moulton, near Northampton, when a spring
storm came on. I took shelter under a fence, the
storm passed over, and the sun suddenly shone out.
Just as I was about to leave my shelter a pied wag-
tail came and settled some six or eight yards from
me on the bank, exposed to the sun, and at once on
alighting commenced singing most sweetly. For the
first moment I could hardly believe it was the bird,
the song being like that of a robin, but more
subdued. I, however, watched it intently, and could
distinctly see its throat moving. — Wm. Tomalin,
Northampton,

A Rare Visitor. — On W^ednesday afternoon last
a fine specimen of a seagull was] picked up from the
ground at Quainton, where it !had sunk completely
exhausted. Efforts were made to revive the poor
bird without success, and it died in a few hours after
its capture. What could have brought this rare
visitor, which was in good condition, and in fine
plumage, so far inland, it is difficult to understand. —
'' Bucks Herald,'" yan. llth, 1S90.

Var. of Helix virgata. — W'hilst spending a
few weeks in Guernsey this summer, I came across a
spot near Bordeaux Harbour where the albino form
of Helix virgata with translucent bands occurred
plentifully. The translucent banding in every case
corresponded to that of the ordinary coloured
varieties with which it lived — the habitat being
chiefly on wild fennel, which grows there luxuriantly.
Next to the type, the commonest form was that
known as v. lencozojta, both of translucent and
coloured shells. The former were very conspicuous
on the tops of the fennel, shining in the sun. Helix
pisona, very fine and pale-coloured, occurs simul-
taneously.— B. T.

Gigantic Puff-Balls. — In your last number
there is a notice of a gigantic puff-ball {Lycoperdon
boviata) ; but one of far larger dimensions was sent
me two years ago from Wortham in Suffolk, about
four miles from this town, and it is still in my
possession in its dried and " Bitllfiste'''' state. When
sent it measured just four feet in circumference, and
to my surprise I find it has now lost but one inch of
that measurement — 47 inches. I wish our clod-
hoppers, who never lose an opportunity of kicking this
handsome fungus to pieces knew how excellent,
nutritious and safe a food it is. It cannot be mistalcen
for any poisonous kind. — T. E. A,

" RosE-HiPS." — Replying to the letters written in
SciEXCE-GossiP for this month (page 260), I tender
my thanks to those correspondents who have so
kindly furnished me information regarding the rose-
hips I wrote about in the September number of this
magazine. There seems to be little doubt but that
the hips in question are those of Rosa rugosa, since
Mr. J. \\. Fisher, Mr. G. S. S. and Mr. R. Scott all
state their belief in this same fact, but since that plant
is unknown to me, personally, I should feel most
deeply grateful if the latter gentleman would (as he
most kindly oft'ered to do) forward me some of the
fruits of B. rugosa for study and comparison. I must
also apologise for having given the position of the
hip, in the drawing I sent up of it, incorrectly, but
the error arose from the fact that the specimen given
me v/as totally devoid of any peduncle ; that I was
quite unacquainted with any hip of that kind, and
that by no possibihty could I obtain clearer, or more
satisfactory particulars concerning it than those pre-
viously quoted. — Miss K. E. Styan.

282

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The Great Green Grasshopper. — I have in my
possession a female grasshopper, Grylla viridissima,
three inches in length, which was caught at Barford
on the Ouse, in Bedfordshire on September iSth, 1891.
It died on October 4th, having lived for sixteen days
in captivity, during which time its food consisted
entirely of French beans. Ova began to be deposited
on October 3rd, the last egg being laid on the 4th,
the day on which the insect died ; the total number
of eggs it laid was sixty-four. The process of egg-
laying as I observed it, is as follows : — The long
horny sheath which is a prolongation of the abdomen,
and is divided into two parts, forms, when shut, an
instrument for piercing a vertical hole in the ground.
When this receptacle is deemed of sufhcient depth,
an egg slides into it down the open sheath. By
means of its two hind-legs, the insect then throws
earth down until the cavity is filled up, the process
being not unlike that of seed-sowing. A longitudinal
section of the ova viewed beneath the microscope
appeared as a yellowish mass bounded by dark lines
and dotted with minute black circles (probably blood
corpuscles) ; enveloping the mass was a white
viscous iluid — the albumen. The horny casing of
the ova was tough and of great strength, as appears
from the two following experiments : — 1st, An entire
egg being placed in cold water in a test-tube gradually
sank, emitting air bubbles ; the water waslhen allowed
to boil, and kept at boiling-point for three minutes,
during which time the egg underwent no external
change. On being cut open, however, at the ex-
piration of that time, the yellow mass was compact
and crumbly, like the yoke of a hard-boiled egg ; the
albumen had become for the most part also set, but
the dark lines and black circles were no longer
visible. 2nd, The 'casing on being treated with
potassium hydrate, changed from a greenish-brown,
to a dark slate-blue colour, and had a tendency to
curl up. The size of the eggs are about 1 of an inch
long and ^^g broad, oblong in shape and blunted at
either end. Externally the colour of the case is of a
greenish-brown, with a smooth and shiny aspect ;
internally it is black, smooth, and highly polished. —
D. V. iM.

Crossbills in Bucks. — A flock of crossbills, Loxia
curvirostra, has lately been observed in the parish of
Hughenden. My informant tells me they appeared
about six weeks ago, and after an interval of three
weeks reappeared in reduced numbers. Several
were killed, and a pair were sent to me, and have
been preserved. — Thos. Marshall, High Wycombe,
" Field;' Dec. 29, i888.

The Marcle Landslip. — In reply to Mr. James's
enquiry in last month's Science-Gossip, I am able
to give some information. The occurrence was not
an earthquake, but a landslip, and in its fall it
buried Marcle Chapel. It is still called the Marcle
Wonder ; and the straight outline of the Marcle
Ridge is sensibly depressed at the spot, when the hill
is viewed from a distance. There have occurred other
landslips in the same locality, and they are thus
described by the Rev. W. S. Symonds, F.G.S., " Proc.
Woolhope Nat. Field Club, 1878." " All the Wool-
hope landslips occur on the line of junction between
the harder limestones of the Aymestry rocks and the
softer Ludlow shales, while you may observe that the
angle at which the beds dip tells of their high incli-
nation from the axis of upheaval." — E. Armitage,
ITercfordsliire.

The White Flower Question. — Although
neither I nor any other person is in an altogether
satisfactory position to fully and adequately discuss

the subject, nevertheless I will endeavour, without
wishing to pose as an authority, to answer to tha
best of my ability Mr. Davey's questions seriatim, as
given at page 2H ante, I. Do the deviations {i.e. of
colour into albino) occur through a modification of
the pigment cells ? Certainly not ; who said they
did ? The cell as a mere normal structure has
nothing to do with the pigment, although in some
cases it may be that the depth of the colour is
proportionate to the number of superimposed layers of
the cells in the petal, which act like so many layers
of pigment ; and in other cases the shades of colour
may be somewhat modified by accidents of surface,
as in velvety petals, for example. 2. Is there an
intensified oxidation of the chromule? I conclude
not, rathe/ the reverse, unless the oxidation goes as
far as utter dissipation and destruction, but of this
latter it would be difficult to satisfy one's self. 3. Is
there really an absence in the pigment of certain
elements essential to the normal colouring? Just so,
most assuredly there is, i.e. the organic basis, so to
speak, of the colouring-matter has not (because of
too early flowering) got as far as the petals, or it
has got there in excessively minute quantity, or
possibly in some cases it has been washed out by rain
or by acid or saline substances present in moist air.
The patient reader will understand that in order
to do full justice to this subject, a lengthy memoir
and a lavish expenditure of ink and paper would be
imperatively necessary, to all which the editor might
object. To cut the matter short, however, it may be
observed that in the course of my researches I have
never seen anything very incongruous with the view
expressed by various eminent chemists and biologists,
that the tannins (or rather their derivatives, I think)
are the bases of the pigments and colouring prin-
ciples of the flowers at all events. Now, I have
personally verified what seems the fact, that in utterly
and absolutely white flowers (these are very rare) not
an iota of tannin, or of its allies or derivatives, can be
detected ; in very deeply-tinted petals there is plenty
of either of these, both altered and unaltered ; and
in moderately dyed and very delicate petals, such as
the harebell, the transmutation is excessive, so that
the original principle can hardly be recognised. But
enough has been said, let us hope, to more or less
justify the foregoing answer to this third query.
Now then for number 4. Are these variations the
outcome of a progressive or retrogressive develop-
ment of colouring-matter ? Well, all considerations
relative to this question may be scouted to the realms
of the poetical imagination. In deference, however,
to the feelings of certain individuals who may have
been enticed or distracted by sundry so-called
theories published in some intensely popular tracts,
lectures, or treatises, it maybe remarked, that white is
no more an advance on yellow than windy gas is on
solid stuff' or mobile fluid ; that in many cases,
though not in all, pink, purple, lilac, violet, and
perhaps blue petals owe their tint to one and the
same substance influenced by the reactions of the
vegetable juices ; that in cases where the yellow
pigment of a flower has been fastened on a definite
chemical compound, the latter is a distinct advance
and improvement (whatever that may mean) on the
compound to which some and possibly all of the more
decidedly and utterly red colouring-matters can be
attributed ; and finally, it would appear that in the
purest and least adulterated blue flowers (harebell,
flax, etc.) the quantity of the dye is relatively small ;
wherefore, in so far as mere quantity is concerned,
these lag behind in respect to " evolutionary develop-
ment." It need hardly be added, that the reason
why yellow flowers rarely sport into white is glaringly

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF.

28'

apparent to anybody who pursues the study of plant
life with even a modicum of scientific instinct. — P. Q.
Kecgan.

The White Flower Question — I have several
times found the heather on the hills in this neighbour-
hood bearing white blossoms, but more frequently
the flowers were only partially white, being tinged
and sometimes blotched, with pink or purple. I
have also found, with Mr. F. H. Davey, that the
white flowers became pink when dried, but quite a dif-
ferent shade from the usual colour. The plants bear-
ing white blossoms have generally been found in
positions facing the south-west, but it does not appear
likely that saline matter can have been brought by
the wind into this district. Two summers ago I
found a white poppy with a yellow centre in a corn-
field near here, growing amongst others with flowers
of the normal colour. Diligent search was made,
but the specimen appeared to be a solitary one, as no
other poppies bearing white flowers were found. —
Frederick G. Biiig.

A Fight with a Lizard. — Mr. Roger Price
sends an account of an adventure with a large lizard
on the Bailywith farm, in Bechuanaland. He was
riding over the farm with its occupant, Mr. George
Willmore, when "suddenly one of Mr. Willmore's
pointers came upon the large lizard which the Dutch
call legovan (iguana). A tierce fight at once began,
the lizard smiting the dog again and again with its
long tail, with much dexterity and fury. For some
time it would seem as if the dog would have to give
in ; but after a while he rose to the occasion, and
fought most pluckily, pressing the legovan so hard
that eventually the ugly and furious beast began to
run away with all his little speed, the dog following
up his advantage. At this stage the lizard got near
the horse ridden by Mr. Willmore, which is, happily,
a quiet beast. In a twinkling he began to climb up
one of the hind-legs of the horse, and, reaching the
tail, he scrambled up that. I had already warned
Mr. Willmore that the lizard was climbing his horse,
but it was not until the furious reptile had got on to
the horse's hip, just behind the saddle, that Mr.
Willmore began to realize his position, and it did not
take him long to get out of the pigskin and on to
mother earth, leaving the infuriated reptile master of
the situation, so far. Once on the ground, Mr.
Willmore set to unhorsing the intruder, which he did
by pushing him oft' with his gun. Then the beast
made for Mr. Willmore himself and began climbing
up his leg, but being beaten off, the fight between
it and the dog was renewed with fierceness. The
lizard got hold of the dog's lip, and retained his
hold for some time. Nothing daunted, the pointer
managed to bring his mouth round so that he had the
lizard's head between his teeth, which he clenched
with such vigour that the beast let go his hold. As
he seemed inclined to make for the horses again, we
gave him a wide berth ; and calling away the dog,
we left the beast to his own devices, there being no
reason for killing him He and the dog mauled one
another considerably, but neither got any particular
harm.

The Common Snake. — Several of your corre-
spondents having recorded the fact of the common
snake laying eggs in captivity, perhaps they may be
interested in the following. In August 1 888, having
captured near Dover, a common lizard {Zootoca
vivipara), I kept it for several weeks in a glass-
covered box, feeding it with flies, &c., which it was
soon tame enough to take from my fingers. One day
I observed that the ■ animal was getting awfully fat

and lazy, not to be accounted for by the number of
flies which constituted its daily meal, which, in fact,
were getting somewhat scarce, when one morning to
my surprise, instead of a lot of living youngsters I
had expected, I found in the cage several — I think
over half a dozen, but can't remember exactly now —
jelly-like eggs, each containing a tiny lizard, alive
certainly but not apparently ready to be born yet.
Are they not generally born alive ? The lizard, alas !
died next day, after a short period of renewed activity,
and all the eggs came to nothing. — Caroltis.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publi'ih Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un-
dertake to insert in the following number any communications
which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of
not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat
dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general
ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges'* offered are
fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are
simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading
the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of owt gratuitous
insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or
initials) and full address at the end.

Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some
exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow
this in the case of writers of papers.

To our Recent Exchangers. — We are willing to be helpful
to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis-
guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us
to appear unless as advertisements.

P. H. G.— .'^.11 articles inserted in Science-Gossip are sent
by writers gratuitously ; nevertheless, we have an abundance
and much choice. Most of the leading scientific writers of the
day have risen to fame through our columns. No other
scientific journal has such a circulation, or better means of
introducing new men.

A. Clark.— Kent's splendid work on the Infusoria was
published in parts. It amounted to 3/. unbound. Messrs.
Wesley & Sons, Essex Street, Strand, may have a secondhand
copy. Write to them.

T. B.— Get Professor Roscoe's Elementary Book on
Chemistry, published by Macmillan & Co., price 2^. kd. -A
good and cheaper work is by Professor Meldola tprice if. kd.),
published by Murby & Co.

Miss B. Hope.— The Rev. O. Cambridge's book on " Dorset-
shire Spiders" is an English classic work on the subject.
Have you seen the Rev. Dr. McCook's fine two-volumed
work, splendidly illustrated, published by subscription by the
author, Boston, U.S.A.

EXCHANGES.

Wanted, foreign land and freshwater shells ; good fossils
given in exchange. Foreign correspondence invited. — A.
Tarver, 11 Westbury Road, Croydon, Surrey.

Offered, about 400 species of fossils of the tertiary Parisian
grounds, well named and in good state of preservation, and in
good number. Wanted in exchange, fossils, shells, prehistoric
objects, and postage stamps. — Mr. Louis Giraux, 22 Rue Saint
Blaise, Paris.

Micro-slides. Wanted, test objects for high powers, in
exchange for selected slides of fossil diatoms. — J. B. Bessell,
F.R.M.S., 8 Elmgrove Road, Bristol.

Montacuta bidentata, M. substriata, Cardium ecMnatjnit,
Astarte sulcata, Psaiii.ferroensis, Scrob. alba, Corbula gibba,
Rissoa striata, R. semistriata, Skenea fila?torbis, Ctzcum
glabrum (with spiral early stage), Scalaria communis, S.
turtoncs, Actceon tornatilis, Philine aperta, Paludiiia con-
tecta (over li in. high). Vertigo pyg^iuea, &c. ; also correctly
named unmounted forams offered for good specimens of British
land, freshwater, or marine shells not in collection. — G. W.
Chaster, M.R.C.S., Southport.

Wanted, a good and extensive collection of fossils from
various formations. Offered in exchange, or part exchange, a
good collection of minerals contained in twelve cases, fitted
with trays, stained and glazed. — Thomas W. Reader, 171
Hemingford Road, London, N.

Wanted, L. C, 8th ed., good specimens of 27 (fruit), 45,

284

BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

'6s, 316. 317. 632, 7ir, 752, 764, 769, 883, 986, 987, 1105, 1106,
1239, 1240, 1260 (in flower), 1265, 1318 (flower and fruit), 1389,
^39S> 3n<l 1825. Would give in exchange ig, 21, -jbh, 95, 116,
"9' 130, 150. i6i< 191^'. 229, 2473, 2471^, 340, 423, 443, 54H^,
545. 686, 75Si5, 783. 784. 9363, 973, loCi, 1175. 1196. 12871^,
i302</, 1410, &c. Address — A. E. Lomax, 56 Vauxhall Road,
Liverpool.

PoLvzoA, mounted, in exchange for others. — Smith, 121
Bewsey Terrace, Warrington.

Triclwmanes radicatis, living plants ; Gentiana pneumo-
nanthe, well-dried specimens 1891 ; polycystinous earth (Bar-
badoes), diatomaceous earth (Cwm Bychan), foraminiferous
sand (Dog's Bay), Btdimus Stitchburyi (Solomon Islands), B.
dealbaUcs (Central Texas), British shells, Stark's "Mosses,"
and " Hobkirk's Synopsis," offered in exchange for foreign
land shells. — T. Rogers, 27 Oldham Road, Manchester.

Offered, British land, freshwater, and marine shells, also a
collection of rare British starfish ready for cabinet, in exchange
for shells, insects, birds' eggs, or micro-slides not in collection,
or entomological apparatus.— W. D. Rae, 9 Claremont Terrace,
Alpha Road, Millwall, London, E.

Exchange — Side-blown clutches, with data, of red-tailed
and red-shouldered buzzards, osprey, downy and golden-winged
woodpeckers, sooty and noddy terns, laughing gull, pied-billed
grebe, blue-winged teal, killdeer, spotted sandpiper, caper-
caillie, red-legs, mocking-bird, American robin, meadow star-
ling, belted kingfisher, red-eye flycatcher, purple martin,
white-bellied swallow, ring-ouzle, Leache's petrel. Send lists
to— Robert Williams, Croase House, Kingsland, R.S.O.

Duplicates. — H. neworalis, kortensis, arbustorum, CocJi.
tridens, Bui. obscurus, Claus. laminata. Vert, pygmira, &c.
Desiderata, land, freshwater, and marine shells, British and
foreign.— H. E. Craven, Matlock Bridge.

Wanted, Helix nemoralis, H. ar-bustorutn, Claiisilia
biplicata. Offered, Tellitia baltkica. Lift, obtusaia, Den-
talium entails.— W. Jones, jun., 27 Mayton Street, HoUoway,
London.

Would any young gentlemen residing in S.W. district, who
would care to combine for mutual and practical scientific study,
send name and address to— J. A. Ellis, i Pomona Place,
Fulham. Students in all branches of natural history would be
welcomed.

Wanted, Lindsay's "British Lichens," and "Treasury of
Botany." Offered, ".Royal Microscopical Journal " for 1887
and 1888.— F. Coles, 53 Brooke Road, Stoke Newington,
London.

J", corneum, N'. fliiviatilis, B. tentacula, B. Leachii, V.
ptscinalis, V. crisiata, P. nitidis, P. sJ>irorbis, P. vortex, P.
corneus, P. contortus, P. hypnorum, P. fontinalis, L. glu-
tinosa, L. stagttalis, S. putris, S. elcgans, H. arbustorinn,
H. cantiafia, H. virgaia, H. ericetorum, P. natitileus, C.
rugosa, &c. Wanted, other shells, land, freshwater or marine,
British or foreign.— J. W. Boult, 17 Finsbury Grove, Fountain
Road, Hull.

Very rich and clean diatomaceous deposit, Troy, N.H.
Wanted, soundings, or other diatom, deposits.— F. Emsley,
98 West Street, Leeds.

Machaon, Cratagi. Paphia, Polychloros, Sylvanus, Hypcr-
anthus, Corydon, Gnlathea, Lignstri, Cnja, Dispar, Chi,
Betularia, Vinula, Silago, Lanestris, Jacobiea, Pudibunda.

Desiderata, side-blown birds' eggs, one hole F. J. Basel!,

6i St. James' Road, Northampton.

For exchange, British and exotic lepidoptera for others, or
offers.— A. H. Shepherd, 81 Corinne Road, London, N.

Wanted, miocene and cretaceous fossils, in exchange for
others from Australia.— J. F. Mulder, Moorabool btreet,
Geelong, Victoria.

Wanted, to correspond with a British ornithologist with a
view to exchange skins, eggs, &c.— J. F. Mulder, Moorabool
Street, Geelong, Victoria.

Offered, good unmounted specimens of Chelifer Latreillel,
in exchange for slides.— Geo. Parish, 124 Kingston Road,
Oxford.

Wanted, botanic micro-slides, and M'Alpine's "Botanic
Atlas." Will give unmounted material and mounted sections,
&c., in exchange. Address — T. B., Conservative Club,
Hmckley.

Stenothyra deltce, Neritina cornucopicE, N. pcrrotetl, N.
Bengalensis, Plectopylis achetina, P. repercussa, Helicarion
Flemingii, Napceus domina, Algaceiis sculp tills, Hydroccena
Blanfordiaua, offered in exchange for other shells.— Miss
Linter, Arragon Close, Twickenham.

Wanted, works by Morris, Seebohm, and Hewitson, also
back numbers of the following, either bound or otherwise :
Science-Gossip, "The Garner," "Field Club," and the
"Zoologist." Will exchange either books or eggs. — W. R.
Riley, Savile Lea, Halifax, Yorks.

For slide of wing-case of weevil [Phyllobius argentatus),
with brilliant green scales, in balsam, send slide of interest to
— L Boggust, Alton, Hants.

Avlcula hirundo, Isocardia cor, Mangelia striolata, wanted
in return for rare British and foreign shells, geological speci-
mens. Mutual exchange.— A. J. R. Sclater, M.C.S., 23 Bank
Street, Teignmouth.

Wanted, back numbers of Scibnce-Gossip previous to

i8go, micro-slides and material, in exchange for well-mounted
slides or material. Address— F. S. Morton, 138 Cumberland
Street, Portland, Maine, U.S.A.

Offered, British and other European phEenogams and
vascular cryptogams ; also North American for those of India,
Japan, South America, or any other country. Printed list of
duplicates. Medicinal plants particularly desired. — H. Fisher,
Stodman Street, Newark, Notts.

Offered, nineteen polished pebbles in exchange for Stark's
"British Mosses," or Dr. M. C. Cooke's "British Fungi."—
H. E. Griset, 4 Downshire Hill, H.nmpstead, N.W.

The undersigned will exchange specimens of the rarer
British mosses for good, well-preserved, and accurately named
flowering plants from the Southern Counties. — J. Cash, Sale,
Manchester.

Mosses. — A large number of British mosses, correctly
named, offered ; British fossils of the Permian system, or of the
lias, Rhsetic, or any of the secondary formation, wanted in
exchange. — Dr. Eraser, Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton.

Terebratula dupllcata, and other fossils from the Cambridge
chloritic marl, in exchange for fossils, land and freshwater
shells, lepidoptera (especially crambites), or birds' eggs. —
A. H. Waters, Priory Road, Cambridge.

Will forward Devonian corals and sponges, for making
sections from for the microscope, in exchange for corals from
other formations for cutting up. Also wanted, geological
slides, large showy coal ferns, and shells, as Mangelia strio-
lata, Avlcula hirundo, Isocardia cor, for which I shall be
pleased to offer other extremely rare British shells in return,
or state desiderata. — A. J. R. Sclater, M.C.S., 23 Bank Street,
Teignmouth, South Devon.

Can offer polished madrepores of Devonian corals, and
spongy forms, minerals, fossils, dredgings and drift containing
lovely micro, objects, and coral mounts in exchange for rare
foreign stamps, and secondhand watch that will keep time, or
natural history specimens. — Mr. T. E. Sclater, Bank Street,
Teignmouth.

Wanted, parts of insects, parasites, Src, unmounted : will
give slides in exchange. — George T. Read, 87 Lordship Road,
Stoke Newington, London, N.

I have a large collection of selachian teeth and spines from
the C. L. of Bristol, for 10/., tgo in number. Teeth numerous
in species, some new or rare, spines few but good. I have
also a lot of ichthyos and plesiosaurian remains from Street,
that I can sell cheap, as I want the room. A whole ichthyo
and two large unmounted fragments of plesios (if not whole),
and several other good fragments — heads, vertebral columns,
&c., all neatly mounted, and fit for exhibition. Price 25/. the
lot. — Thos. Stock, 16 Glen Park, Eastville, Bristol.

Cambrian and Silurian trilobites and other fossils, and Wen-
lock corals given in exchange for fossils from all formations.
Lists exchanged. — W. H. Banks, Ridgebourne, Kington,
Herefordshire.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED FOR NOTICE.
" Handbook to the Geology of Derbyshire," by the Rev.
J. M. Mello (London: Bemrose & Sons).— "The Physical
Geology and Geography of Ireland," by Professor Ed. Hull
(London : Edward Stanford). — " British Fungi," by George
Massee (London: L. Reeve & Co.).— "The Plant World," by
G. Massee (London: Whittaker). — "Colour-Blindness," by
Dr. F. W. Erdridge-Green (London: Kegan Paul & Co.). —
"Geodesy," by J. Howard Gore (London: William Heine-
mann). — " Moral Teachings of Science," by Arabella B.
Buckley (London: Edward Stanford). — "Catalogue of the
British Hymenoptera" (published by the Trustees of the British
Museum, and by Longmans & Co.). — "British Oligocene and
Eocene Mollusca," by R. B. Newton (published by same).—
Vols, of Smithsonian Reports for 1887, 1888, and i88g (Wash-
ington: Government Printing Office). — "Trans, of Guernsey
Soc. of Nat. Science." — "The Microscope." — "The American
Monthly Micro. Journal." — "American Naturalist." — "Cana-
dian Entomologist." — "The Naturalist." — "The Botanical
Gazette."— " The Gentleman's Magazine."— "The Midland
Naturalist."— "The Essex Naturalist."— "The Garner and
Naturalist's Gazette." — " Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes." —
"Journal of Microscopy," &c., &c.

Communications received up to the i2Th
J. E. T.-R. B. P.— W. D. R.— C. P. G— T. W.
— K. E. S.— T. R.— H. M. B.— J. T.— T. S.
A. E. L.— J. B. B.— W. R. S.— L. G.— A. W. R,
T. G. B.— T. A.— G. H. W.— T. S.— R. B.
F. W. W.— J. D. C— W. T.— N. S. T.— W. W.
Miss W.— Dr. R.— J. H.— J. W. M.— O. A. S.-
F. J. B.— R. W.— Dr. P. Q. K.— A. C.— J. W.
F. E.— J. A. E.— W. R. K.— C. A.-E. A.— T.
J. F. M.— G. P.— A. H. S.— J. B.— F. E.— H. G.
F. K.-T. A.— C. W.-A. S. T.— A. H.— E. B.-
A. J. R. S.— T. E. S.— H. C— J. F.— C. H.
F. S. M.— B. H.— J. C— G. I. R.— F. G. B.— H.
— H. W. B.— L. E. A.— C. W.— H. B.-P. H. G,
W. A. C— &c., &c.

ULT. FROM :

R.— A. G. T.
K.— J. S.—

,— T. S. I.—

B.— N. C—
R.— J. E.—

-H. E. C—
B.— F. C—
B.— W. A.—

— T. B. G.—
•A. H. W.—
G.— T. S.—

F.— H. E. G.

— M. A. S.—

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

285

INDEX TO VOL. XXVII.

Abnormal Flowers, i8j

Abnormal Scabious, 214

Abnormal Strawberry, 1S5

Advertisers, 184

Albinism in Plants, 261

Albino Flowers, 1S5

Ancient Earthquake, An, 262

Animals and Medicine, 271

Anniversary Address of the President of
the Geological Society, 92

Aphides and their Monuments, 236

Archseology and Plant Traditions, 214

Are Fossils ever found Alive? 165

Arion aier, 188

Atmospheric Nitrogen and Leguminosae,
167

Atmospheric Nitrogen and Root-Tu-
bercles, 167

Autumn Colours and Tints, 45

Avifauna of Upper Nithsdale, 178

Bacteria as Feeders of Leguminous

Plants, 237
Balsams, Resins, and Gums, 145
Baimacle Goose, The, 252
Batrachomyomachia, 95
Bats Flying in Sunlight, 117, 142, 1S7
Bats in Daylight, 142
Beche-de-Mer, 71
Birds and the Cold Weather, 118
Birds of Fort Augustus, 106
Birds of the West, 74
Birds' Nests, Peculiarities in Site and

Structure, 6, 10
Black-veined White Butterfly, 279
Black-necked Grebe, 43
Black Scoter breeding in Britain, 256
Books, etc.. Received, 24, 48, 72, 96, 120,

144, 168, 192, 216, 240, 264, 284
Botanical Notes from Kemsing and its

Neighbourhood, 123
Botanical Rambles near Roundstone,

County Galway, 155
Botany, 22, 44, 69, 90, 114, 140, 164, 213,

236, 259, 279
Boulders in the Midlands, 120
Braunton Burrows, 280
Brighton Aquarium, Visit to, 56
Butterflies, Early, 235
Butterflies, Migration of, 121

Carboniferous Limestone of Scot-
land, 60, 75
Cheap Bread, 221
Chitinous Plug in MoUusca, 163
Chlorophyll and Light, 91
Chlorophyll in Plants, 22, 45
Cinclidotus riparius, 52
Classificatory Position of the MoUusca,

95, 140

Clausilia rugosa. Monstrosity of, 257

Cleaning Slides, 259

Cleaning Varnish, 238, 259

Coal Sections, 70

Coccus cacti, 31

Coccus cataphractits, 167, 189

Colour and Banding in Land and Fresh-
water Shells, 73, 184

Colouring of Sea-Birds' Eggs, Small-end,
23

Colours of Eggs, 94

Colours of Shells, 44

Common Snake, 261, 283

Communications Received, 24, 48, 72, 96,
120, 144, 168, 192, 216, 240, 264, 284

Concerning Marigolds, 77

Conchological Society's Journal, 215

Consumption, Snails as a Sure Cure for,
n6

Coral Rocks, Barbadoes, 70

Cordyline or Draceena indivisa, 279

Correspondence, 23, 47, 71, 95, 119, 143,
160, 191, 21S, 239, 263, 283

Co-t of Fidelity, 189

Counting Chimpanzee, 239

Crepis iaraxifolia as a Sussex Plant, 45

Crossbills in Bucks, 2S2

Cuckoo's Eggs in a Greenfinch's Nest, 93

Cure for Bite of Mad Dog, 143

Curiosities of Eggs, 46

Curious Beliefs, 118

Ducking: a Lincolnshire Sketch, 17, 39,

50
Dwarf Variety of Helix sylvatica, 90

Early Appearance of the Cuckoo, 142
Early Butterflies, 235
Eastern Mediterranean, Deep-Sea Ex-
ploration in the, 114
Egypt and Guiana, 224
Erica liediterranea in Cornwall, 185
Eriophorunt latifolinm, 167
Euphorbia cyparissias in Kent, 22, 45
European Butterflies, 276
Evolution of Poisons, 22
Exchanges, 23, 47, 71, 96, 119, 143, i68,

192, 216, 240, 264, 283
Execution by Electricity, 191
Extraordinary Entomological Discovery,

118
Extraordinary Growth of Wild Rose Hips,
236, 260

Famine in the Land, 64
Fatalities in the Crater of Vesuvius, 190
Few Notes concerning Cochineal, 31
Fight with a Lizard, 283
Fish Rearing under Favourable Circum-
stances, 273
Flies in Amber, 41
Flight of Birds, 40
Flogging Machines in Russia, 190
Flora of Kent, 22, 90, 115, 259
Floral Guide to Kent, 238, 259
Flying Machines, 190
Foot-working Blow-pipe, Note on, 4
Formation of a Dead Sea in California,

190
Fossil Fish in Lower Silurian Rocks, 93
Frogs an Antidote for Bronchitis, 189
Fungi, Large, 239
Fungus Growth on Eggs, 93, 119

Galvanised Wire and Orchids, 117
Gastrotricha Order, New Species of Dasy-

dytes, 160
Deep-Sea Exploration in the Eastern | Geological History of the Thames Valley,

io8, 135
Geologists' Association, 22
Geology, 22, 70, 92, 115, 142, 165, 186,

260, 280
Geology of Barbadoes, 70

Daisy's Pedigree, 3

Day among the Wild-Fowl, 177

Dead Thrushes in Rabbit-Holes, 117

Mediterranean, 114
Disease in Rook, 21 •

Dogs of War, 1S9
Dorsal Pores of Earthworms, 270
Double Plum, 262

286

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Geology of the Neighbourhood of Win-
chester, 165
Geology of the Lake District, 260
Geology of the Tonga Islands, 1S6
Gigantic Puff-Balls, 281
Glacial Period, 70
Goose, The Barnacle, 252
Grapes in the Open Air, 215
Great Grey Shrike, 21
Great Yarmouth Natural History Society,

93
Gregarious Spiders, i
Guiana, Egypt and, 224
Gums, Resins, and Balsams, 145

Habits of the Crossbill, 117

Helix cantiana. New Variety of, 113

Heredity, 95

Hertfordshire Natural History Society, 69

Holly Fern in Herefordshire, 260

How I Saved my Hive of Bees, 166

Huge Gold Nugget, 23

Huge Puff-Bails, 261

Hunting for Zoophytes, 248

Hiiichinsia petrcea, 141

Hydrobia Jenldnsixix Essex, 163, 164, 184

Hydrocotyle Asiatica, 45

Indian Lizards, 239

Influence of the late Severe Winter on

Small Birds, 69
Introduction to the Study of British Dip-

tera, 35, 53, 102, 126, 156, 171, 27s
Inverness Earthquakes of November 15th,

1890.. 1S7
Island of Inchkeith, 230

Jottings concerning Certain Fruit-

Trees, 49
Journal of Microscopy and Natural

Science, Sg
Journal of the Royal Microscopical

Society, 184

Kent, Floral Guide to, 238, 259
Kermes (Coccus ilia's), 182

Laburnum Seeds, Poison in, 239

Lac {Coccus lacca), 170

Lake District, Geology of the, 260

Land and Freshwater Shells, 43

Large Fungi, 239

Lateral Tubercules, 165

Left Behind, 147

Lemna trisuka, etc., 185

Lincolnshire Botanists, 238

Lincolnshire Sketch, Ducking, 17

Link with the Trilobites, 213

Lizards, Indian, 239

Lizard Rocks and the Mariner's Compass,

247
Local Conchological SocIety,'93, 140

Local Plant and Bird-Names from North

Marston, Bucks, 119
Lord Tennyson's Flowers, 82
Luminosity of Plants, 203

Marcle Landslip, 202

Marine Phosphorescence, 187

Marking of Wild Birds' Eggs at the
Smaller End, 118

Marsh Garden, 97

INIason's Improved Oxyhydrogen Lantern
and Table Microscope, 184

Mercurialis pcremtis, 214

Method of Mounting Diptera, 36

Micro-Marine Zoology at Home, 89

Microscopical Puzzle, 138

Microscopical Society of Calcutta, 89

Microscopy, 21, 42, 68, 89, 113, 13S, 184,
213, 258, 278

Migration of Jamaica Butterflies, 221

Mimicry of Mantis, 68

Mollusca in the Thames, Notes concern-
ing the Distribution of, 8

Mollusca Shell, Colouring of Non-Marine,
121

Monstrosity of Clausilia riigosa, 257, 279

Mounting Cochineal Insects, 43, 89

Mounting Corallines, 8g, 138

Mounting Shells, 95, 113, 140

My INIethod, 222

My Pet Marmoset, 55

Natural History Notes, 71, 202, 218

Natural History in January, 23

Natural History of Slow-Worms, 262

Natural History Vandalism, 117

Neo-Darwinism, 207, 241, 265

Nest of Bomhus lapidaris, 46

New British Moss, 52

New British Worm, 43

New Rotifers, 236

New Slides, 139, 213, 259, 278

New Species of Dasydytes, order Ga'tro-

tricha, 160
New Species of Kangaroo, 184
New Variety oi Helix cantiana, 113
New World Nature-Lovers, 193
North-West of England Boulder Com-
mittee, 142
Note on a Foot-Wcrking Blowpipe, 40
Note on Scolopendrinm fulgare, var.

Lobatium, and its Allies, 92
Note on Sirex juvencus, 147
Note on the Occurrence of Cockroach

Wings in the Coal Measures of the

Forest of Dean, 116
Notes concerning the Distribution of

Mollusca in the Thames Estuary, 8
Notes on New Books, 18, 30, 77, 102, 133,

»5o, 174
Notes and Queries, 23, 46, 70, 93, 116,

142, 167, 187, 214, 238, 261, 281
Notes on Vegetable Teratology, 140
Notes on the Modifications of Roots, 154

Notes on Dog's Mercury {Mei-curialis

perennis), 179
Notes for Winter Work, 217
Notes on an Insectivorous Plant, 269
Notes on the Flora of Braunton Burrows,

North Devon, 236, 260
NotJwlca acu}innata, 139, 164

Obituary —
Dr. James Croll, LL.D., 42
Dr. H. B. Brady, F.R.S., 68
Mr. Andrew Brotherton, of Kelso, 112
Sir John Hawkshaw, 162
Professor M. Duncan, F.R.S., 163
Mr. D. Mackintosh, F.G.S., 213
Dr. Thomas AUcock, Manchester, 213

Old Experiment in Preserving Quickly
Fading Flowers, An, 259

On the Burrowing Habits of the Genus
Testacella, 145, 235

On the Discovery of Pseudopodia in
Diatoms, 258

Optical Effect, 188, 215, 238

Orchard Oriole of the United States, 225

Ornithological Notes from Chichester, 114

Ornithopus cbracteatiis, 69

Our Lane, 86, 99, 123, 163

Parrots and their Eggs, 119

Partly Scalarid Specimens of Helix as-
persa from West Kent, 139

Peculiarities in Site and Structure of Birds'
Nests, 6

Phosphatic Chalk at Taplow, 115

Physa acuta in Scotland, 89

Physical Human Measurements, 189

Pin in Hen's Egg, 165

Plants, Albinism in, 61

Plants found in the Neighbourhood o
Oxshott, Surrey, 69

Pocket-Lens, 43

Poison in Laburnum Seeds, 239

Post Office and Botanists, 115

Power of the Limnidae to resist Cold, 118

Preservation o( Melicefta ringens, 113

Preserving and Arranging Shells, 257

Preserving Fish, 164

Proceedings, etc., of Colonial and Pro-
vincial Societies, 21

Professor Weismann's Theory of Heredity,
105

Puff-Balls, Huge, 261

Quekett Microscopical Club, 68
Query as to Egg, 119

Rabbit Dying of Old Age, 70
Rarest Metals, 191
Rare Visitor, 2S1
Rat Stories, 95
Record in Zonites, 277
Remarkable Hen's Egg, 239
Remarkable Fossils, 2S0

HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF.

287

Remarks on Distyla, with Descriptions of

Three New Rotifers, 204
Resins, Balsams, and Gums, \\$
Reticulated Amoeba [Biomyxa vagans),

199
Ringed Snake, 262
Rise of Sap, 118

Rocks, Curious Phenomenon among, 239
Romano-British Camps, 214
Romaunt of Bedegar, 10, 32
Roots, Notes on the Modifications of, 154
Rose-Hips, 260, 2S1
Rose, Mr. Styan's, 260
Rossendale Rhizopods, 5S, 84, 131, 175,

196, 227, 244, 267
Royal Microscopical Society, 89
Rulus laciniatus, 164

Science-Gossip, 19, 42, 67, 88, 112, 137,

162, i8z, 212, 233, 255, 278
Scientific Plaint, 135
Sea Fowling, 238
Sea Weeds, 46

Second Growth of Raspberries, 119
Shells, Colour and Banding in Land and

Freshwater, 73
Shells in Banffshire, 21
Shells, Preserving and Arranging, 257
Silurian Rocks, Fossil Fishes in Lower,

93
Sir George Airy, 191
Sirex juvencus. Note on, 144
Slow Worms, Natural History of, 262
Snail-Water, 188
Snails as a Cure for Consumption, 116,

166, 188
Snakes and Parasites, 187, 23S

Snake, The Ringed, 262

Society for the S.E. District, 142

Sol way Fishery, 139

Song of the Pied Wagtail, 281

Sparrows, 79

Spiders' Webs, 118

"Sporting" Clover, 281

Square-Tailed Worm, 80

Squirrels in Winter, 18S, 215

Standing Stones and Dolmens of Camac,

196
Strange Conduct of a Squirrel, 117
Stranding of a Hump-Backed Whale on

the Northumbrian Coast, 257
Structure of Insects in Relation to the

Origin of Vertebrates, 98
Subscalarid Monstrosity of Helix ru-

fescens, 166
Swallows Destroying their Voung, r42

Taplow, Phosphate Chalk at, 115

Tardigrades, 188

Telegraphic Communication between

Great Britain, Europe, America, and

the East, 11
Thames Valley, Geological History of,

108, 135
Tii Plant of Tahiti, 213
Torpedo Improvements, 191
Tree-Frogs in Winter, 188
Trees in Trees, 117
Trout and Viper, 191
Trout, 143

Twice-Used Nests, 114
Two Sides of the Medal, 25, 71, 94, 117,

142
Two Views of the Weald, 152

United States, Orchard Oriole of
THE, 225

Value of Attractive Characters to

Fungi, 44
Variations of Colours in Plants, 91, 114,

141, 142
Var. of Helix virgaia, 281
^'ar. o( L ilium auratum, 214
Var. of/", rapi, etc., 46
Vegetable Teratology, 46, 253
Veronica c/iamcedrys, 237, 258
Vertical Camera, 21, 42, 68
Visit to the Brighton Aquarium, 56
Voices of Animals, loi

Wells in West Suffolk; Boulder-
Clay, 186

White Heather, 165, 188, 189

White Toad, 142

White Varieties, i65

White Flower Question, 211, 236, 238, 263,
282

Wild Rose Hips, Extraordinary Growth
of, 236, 260

Winter Work, Notes for, 217

Wood-Pigeons in London, 190

Woollen Clothes and Dyes, 190

Wolf and the Lapps in Swedish Lapland,
and incidentally in other Parts, 228

Words of Birds, 169

Young Birds and their Nests, 119

ZooLOGv, 21, 43, 68, 89,113, 139, 163, 213,

23s. 256
Zoophytes, Hunting for, 248

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, Limited.

STAMFORD STKEET AND CHARING CROSS.

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